813
(0 votes, average 0 out of 5)
Written by Lisa Neff, Staff writer
May 6, 2010
Discharges under the military’s gay servicemember ban reached a record low in 2009, according to statistics from federal agencies.
The Department of Defense reported 428 discharges under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban and the Department of Homeland Security reported another 15 discharges under DADT for the U.S. Coast Guard.
Representatives with the watchdog group Servicemembers United noted that discharges tend to decline during wartime and the nation is currently involved in two conflicts – the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq.
Also, according to SU, the true number of gay and lesbian servicemembers discharged was likely higher in 2009.
Through freedom of information requests filed last year, SU learned that the statistics for discharges under DADT are compiled by the Defense Manpower Data Center, which does not use information from the military Reserves or National Guard.
“The annual discharge numbers have been underreported,” said SU’s Alexander Nicholson, who was serving in the U.S. Army as an interrogator when he was discharged under DADT.
“Policymakers, the media and the American public rely on these numbers to make decisions and judgments about the costs of this policy. The Reserves and the National Guard have been especially active since Sept. 11, 2001, and their numbers have swelled. So it is highly probable that the discharge numbers from these two additional activities are significant,” Nicholson said.
The Defense Department’s reported 17-year total for DADT discharges is 13,425 servicemembers.
Nicholson called those discharges “unfair terminations” that turned lives “upside down.”
Later this month, hundreds of LGBT veterans are expected to lobby Congress to repeal DADT – action the president called for in his State of the Union address in January.
A lobby day will take place in Washington, D.C., May 11, and LGBT veterans also will contact congressional members from their hometowns through a massive letter-writing campaign coordinated led by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
The lobbying push was timed to occur just before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee takes up its defense authorization bill. Markup is scheduled for May 19. Markup for a U.S. Senate defense authorization bill is expected the week of May 26.
LGBT activists have said that the best method for repealing DADT this year is to include a provision in the defense authorization bill.
