A gay officer reacts to Obama signing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal

When President Obama signed a historic repeal of the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers Wednesday morning, he paved the way for a full repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. A gay Minnesota army reserve officer spoke with the Minnesota Independent about the issues involved in the repeal, the struggles faced by gay and lesbian soldiers as they waited for Obama and Congress to act on their promise to repeal, and the stereotypes that conservatives continue to spread. The officer, who has just returned from a 10-month deployment in Afghanistan, spoke on condition of anonymity because while the repeal has been signed it hasn’t yet been implemented.

At today’s bill signing ceremony, Vice President Joe Biden said, “This fulfills an important campaign promise the President and I made, and many here on this stage made, and many of you have fought for, for a long time, in repealing a policy that actually weakens our national security, diminished our ability to have military readiness, and violates the fundamental American principle of fairness and equality — that exact same set of principles that brave gay men and women will now be able to openly defend around the world.”

The repeal — which affects gay, lesbian and bisexual servicemembers (but not transgender people) — will allow open service, but not right away, as the officer who spoke to the Minnesota Independent notes.

“The thing to watch out for, and it is the reason why I will not be overly public yet, is because it may take months to implement the change in each branch of the service, maybe a year or longer,” he said. “The key to this discussion has been that the military wants to do this in the least disruptful way possible. Gays and lesbians coming out before the military is ready for it will only fuel the counter-argument to repeal, that this would have an effect on our readiness and good order and discipline.”

Plus, such a move may be premature, with legislative and judicial challenges to the repeal already being threatened by conservatives.  Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, a group that opposes homosexuality, said in a statement Monday, “I’ve already been in conversations with Hill leaders about holding hearings in the New Year, as well as statutory and legislative oversight steps that can be taken to turn back aspects of the repeal and slow down — if not stop — the rest.”

The officer is going to wait a bit longer to be public about his sexual orientation, mainly out of respect for the current process.

“I will become more public about living under DADT as it is quickly ending,” he said. “However, I respect my chain of command, like most gays and lesbians in the military. I do not intend to create a huge distraction for them. I, like many other gay and lesbian servicemembers, do want to keep attention on this, so that the department of defense certification, the final step for repeal, comes quickly, and is not drawn out.”

The repeal will go into effect 60 days after certification by Obama, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A date for certification has not yet been set.

The Defense Department has already implemented an unofficial moratorium on the discharge of gay and lesbian soldiers, the officer said, and none were discharged in November.

But, he cautioned, “the moratorium in November is not really an actual moratorium.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered that discharges of gay and lesbian soldiers be decided at the highest levels of each branch of the military.

“What this means is that the burden of proof is suddenly increased, because any commander who is considering discharging a servicemember based on the law must now ensure that everything is perfect, as it will have the attention of people very high up in the Pentagon,” the officer said. “Additionally, many lower-level commanders are likely refraining from starting investigations because they anticipated the law would soon change, and it is not worth pursuing this anymore.”

One common theme conservative cite in opposition to a repeal is that gays and lesbians will prey on unsuspecting straight soldiers in the showers and barracks. It’s an argument  Rep. Barney Frank heard from a staffer at the conservative CNS News recently:

The officer told the Minnesota Independent that he has not seen overt sexual advances or sexual activity in his career.

“As for gay men having sexual relations in the showers, I have never encountered this. I am sure someone could do it, though. When I was in Afghanistan, the latrines had individual shower stalls with curtains, so conceivably, some men could be behind there doing something,” the officer said. “I do not know of anyone who actually did.”

“If gay men do have these sorts of liaisons, I think that they are usually planned in advance — they are not random encounters where gay men are cruising and waiting for someone to come along,” he said.

When deployed, there aren’t many private places for sexual activity, he said, “but both straight and gay servicemembers do find places to do it when they want.”

The soldier also said that the wait for President Obama and Congress to act on their campaign promises took its toll.

“In my unit’s train-up for Afghanistan, I was confronted by command with some articles about my activism on DADT from when I was in law school,” the officer said. “I knew this stuff was on there, but when I re-affiliated with the reserves, I expected President Obama to quickly end DADT, because he had promised to do so during the campaign. Unfortunately, he did not act upon this promise quickly.”

The officer said that he faced the possibility of getting kicked out. “My command faced the difficult decision whether to leave me back and begin proceedings to discharge me from the Army. Thankfully, my immediate supervisor advocated on my behalf, and my command decided, with a very nuanced legal opinion, that discharge was not appropriate.”

The rationale was that the officer wanted to serve and not to be an “activist” on the battlefield.

“Primarily, my command wanted to make sure that I truly wanted to deploy with the unit and serve my country and that I did not have the goal of getting over to Afghanistan and publicly ‘coming out’ in order to create a media spectacle. I did my ten-month-long tour of duty with my unit in Afghanistan, and it is a great feeling, now, that this policy is on the verge of repeal.”

On coming out in civilian life and having military superiors finding out: “I come from a rather privileged position in the military when it comes to this policy. I came to terms with my sexual orientation in 2002, and I have been comfortable with my orientation for a long time,” the officer said. “I figured out how to be in the military as a gay person, how to have gay friends, and to be out to family and friends but not at work.”

Being an officer carried special privileges. “As an officer, I also had greater privacy, so I can do my own thing without the level of scrutiny from roommates or other Soldiers in the barracks,” the officer said. “I also have a very supportive chain of command –who even when they found out about my orientation, did everything they could to make sure I was not discharged.”