Linky
When I entered college and started travelling the world, I learned more about who I was (Democrat, lesbian, etc.), and the less the military appealed to me. I also worked in President Barack Obama’s office when he was senator of Illinois, and I was working on veteran affairs. This also taught me much more than one could ever know about the military as an institution — how it treats veterans, what its policies are on mental health, how much discrimination minorities face, etc. But once you sign the contract, you’re stuck.
As with all discrimination in the U.S., things aren’t apparent on the surface, but when you dig just a little deeper, it’s crazy what comes out. When my story was being covered in the local papers, people would post online comments all the time saying “go back to your country”, “good riddance”, etc.
The strange thing about the policy was that it really was “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. You’re allowed to be in the military if you are queer, but you are not supposed to ‘engage in homosexual conduct’. If you are lesbian/ gay/ bisexual/, nobody is supposed to ask and nobody should tell. And I have to say, I think this ‘hiding’ is much more psychologically damaging to people than it would be to have a ‘no queers allowed’ policy. It is difficult for young people, of course, but the older you get and the higher you move up in the ranks, the more you have to lose... most people spend their careers hiding, sometimes being hunted down (at gay bars and other places) and then get kicked out. Then, there was me, screaming at my commander, “Hello, I am lesbian!” and they wouldn’t kick me out. Eventually, when I married, I became the first person in the history of the military to have been married to a person of the same sex and still be kept in the military. And when I was finally kicked out, I was the only Indian person kicked out under the DADT.
No comments:
Post a Comment