"I finally said, you know what, I'm going to tell my story. The first American injured in the Iraq war is a gay Marine. He wanted to give his life to this country." ~Eric Alva, 40, former Marine and veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom

Tell: An Intimate History of Gay Men in the Military [more inside]
posted by zarq on Aug 26, 2011 - 29 comments

If you tell your commander that you're a homosexual, you can be discharged from the military, unless they think you're doing it to get out of the military. "If commanders are ignoring or rejecting credible evidence of homosexuality because of the alleged motive of the person who makes the statement, the bottom line is they are keeping gay people in the service," said Frank, a senior research fellow at UC Santa Barbara's Palm Center. "That gives the lie that known gay people undercut the military."
posted by borkencode on Apr 2, 2010 - 68 comments

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Matter If You Are Fluent In Arabic, Despite Our Serious Need For That.... This story hits very close to home. This is a friend from college (Emory) who was just thrown out of the army when they discovered he had a boyfriend. Particularly ridiculous is the fact that he had just achieved fluency in Arabic and would have been (among other gay soldiers) extremely useful to the cause at present. Apparently, heterosexual couples discovered coupled in their rooms at the same inspection were given 10 days restriction and extra duty.
posted by adrober on Nov 13, 2002 - 66 comments

What fun it must be to be gay and in the military. Seems like the military can't make up its damn mind about whether or not gay people are ok to serve.
posted by 4midori on Feb 15, 2002 - 16 comments

Gay, lesbian troops can serve openly -- for now "First, gays and lesbians would be allowed to serve during any war, just as they do now, as long as they remain in compliance with the homosexual conduct policy," said Maj. James P. Cassella of the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs' office."

Sorry we've treated you so crappy, but, uh, we need you to serve now. Of course, when we don't need you any more, you'll be discharged because you're gay.
posted by 4midori on Sep 19, 2001 - 81 comments

Latest David Horowitz trolling op-ed piece, this time on gays in the military. With his usual obliviousness to irony, he presumes in this piece that anyone who disagrees with him must be the knee-jerk PC police. Question: does posting a link to a troll constitute trolling in and of itself? Discuss.
posted by hincandenza on Jun 25, 2001 - 31 comments

Gay Legislator in Deal to Leave U.S. Army Reserve He came out and stood up for Gay rights in the AZ Legislature...KUDOS to the U.S. Army Reserves for seeing the wisdom in giving him his HONORABLE discharge. BUT...
posted by Princess Buttercup on Jan 16, 2001 - 4 comments