COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Service: Gays/Lesbians
Number of Gays Leaving Military Rises
Associated Press
May 25, 2006
WASHINGTON
- The number of military members discharged under the Pentagon's "don't
ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuals rose by 11 percent last year -
the first increase since 2001, officials said Wednesday.
A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, said 726 service members
were discharged under the policy during the 2005 budget year that ended
last Sept. 30. That compares with 653 discharges the year before. She
released the figures after a gay rights advocacy group said it had
obtained the statistics on its own.
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which has represented military
members who were forced out for being openly gay, says the Pentagon's
policy deprives the military of qualified and experienced personnel in
at a time when the Army and Marine Corps have struggled to meet their
recruiting goals.
The policy prohibits the military from inquiring about the sex lives of
service members but requires discharges of those who openly acknowledge
being gay. Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has given any
indication of dropping their long-standing support for the policy,
implemented in 1993 under the Clinton administration.
"The law deprives our nation of thousands of skilled men and women who
could be instrumental in fighting the war on terror," said C. Dixon
Osburn, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
Discharges under this policy peaked at 1,227 in 2001, then fell to 885 the following year and to 770 in 2003.
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