Dateline: May 3, 2000
Perhaps some of you watch West Wing, one of the better shows on television (at least thought so by those of us who would love to have a wanna-be-activist-bleeding-heart-humanist in charge in the White House).
Recently an episode aired in which the President was sending out feelers to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the "old-boy's club" that virtually runs the U.S. Military) regarding the much derided, and rightly so, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays and lesbians serving in the military.
In the show, the Colonels who were meeting with the President's person were adamant that "Don't Ask Don't Tell" was working fine and that allowing gays to serve openly in the military would be a disaster. They took this position even in the face of facts provided them proving that "Don't Ask Don't Tell" is actually a disaster, resulting in more discharges, harassments, and witch hunts than ever before.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is played by John Amos, who wanders by the meeting. The dialogue goes something like this:
Amos: You're discussing Don't Ask Don't Tell?
Colonel Flunkies: Yes, Sir!
Amos: You think that gays and lesbians serving openly would harm unit cohesion?
Colonel Flunkies: Yes, Sir!
Amos: You think that it would lead to morale problems?
Colonel Flunkies: Yes, Sir!
Amos: And that our men and women wouldn't want to follow the commands of a gay or lesbian officer?
Colonel Flunkies: Yes, Sir!
Amos: I agree with you ...
But unlike the (former) real Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell, who is on record as being against gays and lesbians openly serving in the military and sees no analogy between this position to the previous military discrimination against African-American soldiers, and upon whom the Amos character could reasonably be based, Amos doesn't stop there. He continues:
Amos: ... but that's what they said about me and people like me in the 50s. That integrating the service would harm unit cohesion and soldiers wouldn't follow the commands of a black officer. And look at me now, I'm the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
If only real life were that simple.
Indeed, in the real world, even in the face of reports of increased abuse of both the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy and harassment of gay and lesbian (and/or suspected as gay and lesbian) military personnel, the United States military, in its infinite wisdom, refuses to publicize an anti-harassment hotline. It was this type of hotline that lead to investigation and revelation of the "Tailhook" incident.
The hotline in question is a 1-800 anonymous number, provided by the military to assist in an ongoing probe of Fort Campbell's (Kentucky) handling of harassment issues in the time frame both before and after the July 5, 1999 murder of Pfc. Barry Winchell.
Winchell was bludgeoned to death by Calvin Glover, a soldier who was in the process of discovering and exploring his own sexual orientation, a process which included trips to a Nashville gay bar and a relationship with a TG woman.
At Glover's trial there was extensive testimony that the commanders of Fort Campbell had long been aware of the harassment of Pfc. Winchell and had chosen to take no action.
Following the murder and publicity surrounding the trial the Pentagon had announced that it would undertake some adjustments to the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, and further promised a review of the anti-harassment policies at Fort Campbell.
However, when SLDN attempted to place an ad in the base newspaper, promoting the anti-harassment hotline, they were told that the ad was not acceptable.
The official reason provided by Fort Campbell was that the ad was not necessary because soldiers had "already been trained" on how to recognize and report harassment of gay and lesbian personnel and that the telephone number was already widely known.
The end result will be business as usual. Harassment of perceived or actual gays and lesbian members of the United States armed services and very likely additional acts of violence against them, accepted by the "brass" as they continue to turn a blind eye.
In fact, since the Winchell murder acts of abuse against gays and lesbians in the armed services continues to rise, with SLDN issuing a report documenting 968 incidents of abuse during 1999, an increase of 142 percent over 1998 which was itself double the total reported in 1997.
Women continue to be faced with the extra burden of "lesbian-baiting" wherein if they decline the advances of a male serviceman the retaliation is always a charge (sometimes formal, sometimes informally) that the woman who declined is a lesbian. (She must be, after all - why else would she say no!?), further documented in the SLDN report regarding a "witch hunt" as the Defense Language Institute (Monterey, California), during which 12 Air Force women were targeted.
In pride,
Deborah