DADT // Current

Freedom To Serve - Gay in the Military

Mary Verne was discharged from the Army for being a Lesbian. This is her story.

jcwelker
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NATO commander: 'gays unfit for service'

"Gays in the army are unsuitable". That is according to General Mauro Del Vecchio, interviewed online by Klaus Davi for... more

jcwelker
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'Don't ask' repeal campaign in San Diego

A San Diego reception marks the beginning of a six city whistle-stop tour of communities in the Western U.S organized by... more

jcwelker
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Gay American war hero with Purple Heart did not tell unless asked

Major Alan G Rogers, 40, was an American patriot, committed to the US Army in which he had served for 18 years. His death, from a... more

JanaPokana
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Secretly Gay

The actor, model, gay rights activist and winner of "The Amazing Race" has written a book on being secretly gay in the... more

chapinyoung
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Conservatives wage PR battle against gay service

Social conservatives, sensing they are on the losing side of a public relations war, are plotting ways to turn military leaders... more

dkincheloe
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House reconsiders 'don't ask, don't tell'

A House panel weighed overturning the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy Wednesday, the first time... more

sheamus
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Sorry We Asked, Sorry You Told

Don't ask, don't tell. And, whatever you do, don't ask Elaine Donnelly to tell you what she thinks about gays in the military.

The House Armed Services personnel subcommittee made just such a miscalculation yesterday. Holding the first hearing in 15 years on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, lawmakers invited a quartet of veterans to testify on the subject and also extended an invitation to Donnelly, who has been working for years to protect our fighting forces from the malign influence of women.

Donnelly treated the panel to an extraordinary exhibition of rage. She warned of "transgenders in the military." She warned that lesbians would take pictures of people in the shower. She spoke ominously of gays spreading "HIV positivity" through the ranks.

"We're talking about real consequences for real people," Donnelly proclaimed. Her written statement added warnings about "inappropriate passive/aggressive actions common in the homosexual community," the prospects of "forcible sodomy" and "exotic forms of sexual expression," and the case of "a group of black lesbians who decided to gang-assault" a fellow soldier.

At the witness table with Donnelly, retired Navy Capt. Joan Darrah, a lesbian, rolled her eyes in disbelief. Retired Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, a gay man who was wounded in Iraq, looked as if he would explode.

Inadvertently, Donnelly achieved the opposite of her intended effect. Though there's no expectation that Congress will repeal "don't ask, don't tell" and allow gays to serve openly in the military, the display had the effect of increasing bipartisan sympathy for the cause.

Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) labeled her statement "just bonkers" and "dumb," and he called her claims about an HIV menace "inappropriate." Said Snyder: "By this analysis . . . we ought to recruit only lesbians for the military, because they have the lowest incidence of HIV in the country."

Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.), a veteran of the war in Iraq, called Donnelly's words "an insult to me and many of the soldiers" by saying they "aren't professional enough to serve openly with gay troops while successfully completing their military mission."

Don't ask, don't tell. And, whatever you do, don't ask Elaine Donnelly to tell you what she thinks about gays in... more