Lesbians suffer most from 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy in U.S.

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Posted by Administrator in Military on November 12, 2009  |  0 Comments More from this author  |

Research carried out by the Palm Center at the University of California in Santa Barbara revealed women made up a mere 15 percent of all active-duty and reserve members of the military but accounted for more than 33 percent of the 619 members of the military discharged from service in 2008 because of their sexual orientation.

Lesbians in the Air Force were at the most risk of being discharged, with MSNBC reporting that whilst women formed just 20 percent of the Air Force, 61 percent of those who found their military career at an end because they were gay were women.

It is the first year since the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which removes from the military those who are openly gay, was introduced in the mid 1990s that a larger percentage of women were discharged from a branch of the military than men.

According to CNN 90 people in total were discharged from the Air Force in 2008, 56 of them women and 34 of them men.

In the army too there was considerable disparity, with 36 per cent of those removed from the service being women. However only 14 percent of those serving in the army were female.

The Navy figures were 23 percent of discharges compared to 14 percent of the personnel and in the Marines it was 18 percent of discharges to 6 percent of personnel.

Julianne Sohn was the only female Marine officer discharged as a consequence of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" last year and she had just returned from seven months in Iraq when she was told that she was being investigated because of her sexual orientation. The call giving her that news was not a great surprise, several of her colleagues already knew that she was a lesbian and had warned her that an investigation was likely pending, but she said that she felt insulted at being treated almost like a criminal.