“We just want to serve our country”

So said Roxie Hovan, one of four panelists at yesterday’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” forum sponsored by the Military Equality Alliance. This thought was echoed by the other participants, each who had served in the various branches of the military. Hovan, who served nine years in the Navy, comes from an extremely patriotic Alabama family, so military service was a natural choice for her. Trained as a sub-hunter, Hovan endured three separate investigations of her sexuality over the course of her time in the Navy, with interrogations lasting as long as eight hours. Having to put so much energy into just being safe, Hovan decided to leave a job in which she had excelled and one which she loved.

The opening speaker of the panel was Navy Captain Robert Rankin, MD, a psychiatrist who served 34 years in the Navy. His time covered the period before, during and after DADT. He told of how he and other professionals in the military formed an underground list of gay and gay-friendly service providers (chaplains, psychiatrists, etc.) in order to provide support for gays who were serving. The need for such as list was brought home in his tale of Eli, a sailor who had come to Rankin for religious advice. Rankin referred the guy to a chaplain that he did not know. Shortly thereafter, there was a softball game and Eli was playing center field. The game was being held on Gitmo, and around the field was a fence. Cuba had also erected a fence. In between the two fences was about 50 yards – and a minefield. Somehow, Eli got over the fence and was in the minefield. The game was stopped while maps of the mines in the field could be obtained. As it turned out, Eli had gone over the fence intentionally. The chaplain had told him that his homosexuality would mean he would go to hell so Eli felt that suicide was preferable to being sent to hell.

Rankin was a highly regarded officer who made rank on time. But when it came time for him to be promoted to flag rank (rear admiral), he was told that single men don’t get promoted to such ranks. It was then that Rankin decided to leave the military.

Army Colonel Thomas Field was introduced as a graduate of Oxford and Harvard Law. His career started in the closing days of the Korean War. He reminded us that Senator Joseph McCarthy’s hunt for communists was extended to include gays. He pointed out a 1957 Crittendon report that showed that homosexuality does not pose a national security risk, yet DADT requires gays to serve in silence. He read from a letter he recently received from a gay military officer, who believes that DADT undermines the military’s core values of morale, unit cohesion and combat readiness in four ways:

1. DADT discharges. The loss of qualified personnel in such areas as medicine and linguistics has created a severe shortage in these areas.
2. DADT prevents qualified young people from even considering enlistment. The changing standards for enlistment are reflective of this.
3. DADT causes people to curtail their military careers.
4. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to reinstitute the draft, as some people would simply claim that they are gay to avoid service.

Field pointed out that Israel is among 27 countries that allow gays to serve openly.

Perhaps the most heart-wrenching stories came from Navy Chief Petty Officer Vivien Vilora, who retired last year. Vilora had a hard time maintaining her composure as she recounted the abuse she endured during her 22-year career. Coming from a poor family, Vilora mentioned that she felt like she had no other place to go so she stuck it out. She was in a billet that was dominated by men. To help fend off the charges of lesbianism, she started leaving the ship in the company of men, only to then be characterized as, she said, “a whore.” She had little life outside of the Navy and mentioned that under DADT, gay service members cannot even divulge their orientation in counseling, since they will be turned in.

Some 50 people were in attendance at the meeting yesterday. There are approximately 10,000 gay and lesbian veterans in the Hampton Roads area. The media was there as well, including three TV stations, the Daily Press and the Virginian-Pilot. The Military Equality Alliance is advocating on behalf of a bill by Massachusetts Congressman Martin Meehan, which would require the military to adopt a nondiscrimination policy on sexual orientation.

From my perspective, DADT is a failed policy and one which needs to be overturned. The fact that 27 other countries allow gays to serve openly is sufficient evidence that it can be done here. I am reminded of the segregation of black and white personnel in the military. People thought that it was going to be a problem. It wasn’t. And this won’t be, either.