Do Ask, Do Tell - Many Gays Would Re-enlist if DADT Ends

While the recession has likely helped the U.S. military meet recruiting targets since many will enlist rather than be unemployed for months and months in a row. Nonetheless, many positions requiring education and special talents are going unfilled. Now, Newsweek has a new piece out that reports that many LGBT service members with needed skills would re-enlist if the religious based discrimination called DADT were to be repealed. The evidence in Log Cabin Republicans v. United States confirmed that DADT is harming military readiness and has caused the loss of service members with critical skills - solely so that the egos of self-congratulatory bigots like Elaine Donnelly and similar professional Christians can be stroked and satisfied. As noted in a post yesterday, Barack Obama could end this travesty. Personally, I doubt he will since I view him as a total liar and spineless wonder. In the event I am wrong, here are highlights from the Newsweek article (P.S. John McCain needs to get himself educated and read about how some of these veterans were outed):
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Nearly 1,000 specialists with vital skills —Arabic linguists, for example—have been forced out, meaning millions of taxpayer dollars spent on military training have gone to waste. According to a 2010 report by the Williams Institute, a think tank at UCLA that focuses on gay legal and policy issues, the U.S. Armed Forces spend about $22,000 to $43,000 to replace each individual discharged under DADT, and the discharges continue today.
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The cost to the individuals kicked out is impossible to measure. Many speak of shattered lives and reputations, skills lost, and of desperate years trying to regain financial and emotional security.
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He [Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network]says that when it comes to gay veterans, “the bottom line is that they would have to meet present-day requirements: age, physical condition, and proficiency in their military occupational skill.” Other issues still under debate include rank, pay, and benefits. If former service members are allowed to return, should they come back at the same rank they had when they were expelled? Should they return at the same pay level, or perhaps be compensated in some way for lost years? No one knows how many gay vets might wish to return; estimates range from several hundred to several thousand. In one survey, 20 percent of gay vets who left the military said they would have stayed if they could have served openly, says Gary Gates of the Williams Institute. That means “one in five who’ve left could potentially be interested in coming back.”
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Lissa Young, 48, is one of those who would sign up right away. A West Point grad from a military family—her father was a fighter pilot—Young had an exceptional 16-year military career before she was outed in 2002. At that time, she was a Chinook pilot and West Point instructor who had just been selected for promotion to lieutenant colonel. A soldier who had seen a private e-mail written by Young informed on her; when confronted by a superior officer, Young admitted she was gay.
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Many former service members reached by Newsweek say they are not looking for back pay; they simply want the opportunity to serve again and make a living doing what they love. Bleu Copas, 34, joined the Army after the attacks of September 11. “I thought it was the honorable thing to do,” says the native of Johnson City, Tenn. But after almost four years in the service, the then-sergeant—and fluent Arabic speaker—was anonymously outed.
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The Army invested a lot of time and money in Copas before it dumped him. He spent 18 months in intensive Arabic training in Monterey, Calif., and had top-secret clearance for handling sensitive documents.
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The Palm Center’s Belkin says there are many reasons that people, despite the trauma of discharge, would want to reenlist. “First of all, gays and lesbians are just as loyal as anyone else,” he says. “It’s precisely because of a history of discrimination that minority communities can be particularly motivated to be seen as good soldiers.” There is also the simple fact that for many, military life offers greater responsibility and self-respect. Former artillery sergeant Pepe Johnson, who was once “soldier of the year” at Fort Sill, Okla., worked at Walgreens after getting discharged in 2003.
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[P]ilots, linguists, and trained gunners watched from the sidelines as the military loosened restrictions on high-school dropouts and former drug users to boost recruitment for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “It really made us crazy when they waived convicted felons into service,” Wilson recalls.
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So much lost talent - all so that Christianist loons like Elaine Donnelly can fell superior and self-congratulatory. It makes me sick.