MEA in the News
'Don't ask' policy criticized at event
By EDIE GROSS, THE FREE LANCE-STAR
Date published: 8/25/2006
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2006/082006/08252006/216314
Tony Smith of Alexandria, Lara Ballard (center) of
Washington and Janet Worsham of Richmond talk at The
Loft in Fredericksburg during a reception hosted by
the Military Equality Alliance.
Event honors gay veterans, challenges 'Don't Ask,
Don't Tell' policy
When Army Capt. Lara Ballard seemed stressed out on
the job, her superior suggested she find a male companion
to help her relax.
"Not a day went by that someone didn't ask, 'Why
don't you have a boyfriend or a husband?'" recalled
Ballard, 37, who hid the fact that she was gay during
her four years in the Army. "What I felt was an
immense pressure or paranoia that there were rumors
that I was a lesbian."
Under the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
policy, Ballard could've been removed from the service
had anyone found out she was gay. Now a lawyer in Washington,
she is campaigning alongside other veterans for an end
to the military's practice of singling out gays.
"It was always something I had to actively manage,"
Ballard said of her fear of being found out. "It
just adds to the stress. I think, how much better an
officer could I have been had I not been worried about
this?
"We talk about gays and lesbians serving openly.
People think, oh, we're going to be flaunting our sexuality,
the feather boas and stuff," she said. "It's
not a question of openness as much as honesty. I wanted
to live my life honestly."
Ballard now co-chairs Military Equality Alliance, an
organization seeking to repeal the "Don't Ask,
Don't Tell" policy. The group hosted a reception
for gay veterans and their supporters last night as
the kick-off event for this year's Pride in the 'Burg
celebration.
Participants, several in uniform, gathered at The Loft
on Princess Anne Street for an evening of food and music.
Tony Smith drove down from Alexandria. His family was
full of veterans who had served in World War II, Vietnam
and Korea, and he had wanted to serve, too.
He spent six years in the Air Force as an intelligence
analyst, but left in 1995 because he got tired of hiding
who he was.
Now an IT consultant, Smith is executive director of
the Military Community Services Network, a nonprofit
that helps active-duty gays and lesbians find confidential
social services.
"Obviously there was a lot of pressure on individual
members like myself to hide and conceal your sexual
orientation, a lot of pressure to deceive your co-workers,
which is in direct conflict with the honesty and integrity,
the values the military teaches," said Smith, 36.
"I wanted to stay for 20 years, but I just couldn't."
Janet Worsham did just that. She was caught off-guard
in 1979 when a recruiter asked if she was gay. She told
him no and went on to serve two decades in the U.S.
Army Reserve.
"There were the jokes, and they were hard for
me to hear," said Worsham, 59, who lives in Richmond.
"I'd have to leave my office and go out in the
hall and say, 'Let's be respectful.'"
The prohibition against gays serving in the armed forces
had long been part of military practice, but in 1993,
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" became operating procedure.
The policy allowed gays to serve in the military as
long as they did not reveal their sexual orientation.
It was considered a compromise of sorts between those
who favored no restrictions on gays in the armed forces
and those who wanted an all-out ban.
Supporters of the policy have claimed that having openly
gay people in the military would undermine unit morale
and defense readiness.
The Military Equality Alliance argues just the opposite:
Forcing gay service members to hide a key part of their
identity promotes dishonesty and distrust in an organization
that relies on cohesion.
"They're not there to make a statement. They're
there to blend in," Ballard said of gays in the
military. "Ironically 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'--the
enforced silence--makes them stick out like a sore thumb.
When you have someone who's quiet and doesn't ever talk
about what they do on the weekends, you think he's kind
of weird."
Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military
Readiness, also opposes "Don't Ask , Don't Tell"--but
for entirely different reasons. Her organization would
like the military to once again ask recruits about their
sexual orientation, reducing the number of gays inducted
in the first place.
"The military is different than the civilian world.
People live in conditions of little or no privacy and
forced intimacy. It's not good policy to require people
to expose themselves to persons who might be attracted
to them," she said in a telephone interview. "We
don't house men and women together either."
Dan Dukes served in the Marine Corps for 15 years.
The married father of two said the present policy "just
doesn't make sense."
As an infantryman, Dukes said he was more concerned
about the combat training of those he served with than
whether they were gay.
"If somebody can do the job and they're an American
citizen, by God, they should have a right to defend
their country," said Dukes, 36, now a builder who
lives in Falmouth. "Nobody should stand in the
way of somebody who's capable of doing the job and getting
it done."
Between 1994 and 2003, 9,501 service members were discharged
from the military for "homosexual conduct,"
according to a February 2005 report by the U.S. Government
Accountability Office. It cost the government $190.1
million to recruit and train replacements, according
to the report.
The Military Readiness Enhancement Act, introduced
in the House last year by U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass.,
would replace the current policy with one that does
not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.
The bill has 118 co-sponsors, including five Republicans.
Dukes, who served from 1989 to 2004, said the military's
treatment of women and racial minorities has changed
dramatically over the last 50 years. He expects the
same for its policy on gay service members.
"I think it's only a matter of time before 'Don't
Ask, Don't Tell' will be repealed," he said. "There
will be an adjustment couple of years, and then no one
will care."
ON THE NET: For more information on the Military Equality
Alliance, visit militaryequality.org. To see a schedule
of events for this weekend's Pride in the 'Burg festival,
go to fredericksburgpride.org.
To reach EDIE GROSS:540/374-5428
Email: egross@freelancestar.com
Gay veterans speak out against policy
By HATTIE BROWN GARROW, The Virginian-Pilot
© July 30, 2006
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=108387&ran=197297
 NORFOLK
- Roxie Hoven considers herself a patriot, a preserver
of freedom who was willing to work - and die - for her
country. All the while, she felt oppressed.
During her nine years in the Navy, Hoven hid the fact
that she is a lesbian. She made no hint of her sexual
orientation but, she said, she endured harassment that
eventually led her to leave the Navy. The military interviewed
her co-workers and friends, interrogated her three times
and threatened to search her home, she said.
Hoven was honorably discharged in 1995 after nine years
of service.
No one else should experience that, Hoven told more
than 50 people Saturday during a two-hour town hall
meeting at the Fred Heutte Center. She and three other
gay veterans from Virginia spoke out against the military's
13-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
(Click here to
read more)
Vets speak on gay policy
Homosexual ex-service members share stories in hopes
of reversing the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell,"
statute.
dailypress.com
BY STEPHANIE HEINATZ
247-7821
July 30, 2006
http://www.dailypress.com/news/local/dp-87525sy0jul30,0,6096956.story?track=rss
 NORFOLK
-- Robert M. Rankin stood tall and walked proudly to
a small podium.
His white uniform was crisp. The gold bars on his shoulders
- signifying his rank as a Navy captain - were perfectly
attached.
And his smile was as bright as the ribbons decorating
his chest.
When the current clinical professor of psychiatry and
behavioral medicine at George Washington University
retired from the military in 1980, the Navy asked him
for one small favor.
"When you speak to any group about a military
subject, speak in uniform," Rankin said.
(Click here
to read more)
Group brings ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' fight to region
By KATE WILTROUT, The Virginian-Pilot
© July 27, 2006
Last updated: 8:07 http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=108216&ran=8586&tref=po
| Town hall meeting
The meeting on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Fred Heutte
Center, 1000 Botetourt Gardens, Norfolk.
The panelists include retired Navy Capt. Robert
Rankin, M.D.; retired Army Col. Thomas Field;
retired Navy Chief Petty Officer Vivien Viloria;
and Roxie Hoven, who served in the Navy from 1986
to 1995. |
NORFOLK - A fledgling national organization dedicated
to repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
hopes to make Norfolk a hot spot of grassroots opposition
to the 13-year-old military policy
on homosexuals.
The Military Equality Alliance is sponsoring a town
hall meeting here Saturday that will feature four gay
veterans from Virginia. MEA was formed this month, has
one paid employee and an annual budget of $80,000, according
to Jim Maloney, its San Francisco-based executive director.
(Click here to read
more)
Meaning of Pride festivities holds true for young
and young at heart
Hard News Online
by John Roberts, Staff Writer
http://www.hnokc.com/mainpage.aspx?pageid=69&articleid=29993124320060628175450
Oklahoma City, OK - For Andi Hicks, going to Pride
just seemed like the most logical thing to do. Having
just come out to her parents a few months before, the
eager young Hicks stood with a friend outside a grocery
store at NW 39 and Pennsylvania Avenue on Sunday waiting
to see her first parade. (Click
here to read more)
‘To
serve with integrity and honor
Dallas Voice
By Tammye Nash Staff Writer
Jun 15, 2006
http://www.dallasvoice.com/artman/exec/view.cgi/25/2468
 Pepe
Johnson wants to spare other gay soldiers the ordeal
he endured — and maybe have the chance to enlist
in the Army again.
Under the “don’t ask, don’t tell”
policy, gays and lesbians in the military spend their
lives looking over their shoulders, censoring their
conversations and guarding details of their private
lives as if they were national security secrets. (Click
here to read more)
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