RULES OF ADVOCACY FOR SERVICE MEMBERS
By Aaron Tax, Esq.
If you are a lesbian, gay, or bisexual active duty service member (or a member of the National Guard or reserves) you CAN speak out against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT), but there are 3 precautions you must take because of DADT and DoD Regulations:
Don't act as though you represent the military when expressing your personal opinion. DoD Regulation 1344.10 (controlling political activity by military members) limits what you can say and how you can say it. You should not wear your uniform and you should not give the impression you are speaking for your unit or the military when you express your opinion on a political issue.
When you speak out, don't out yourself. Being out to anyone, anywhere, at any time can get you discharged. Therefore, do not identify yourself as LGB – or suggest that you are LGB - while writing or speaking out against DADT.
Be careful - you risk raising suspicions that you are LGB. Even if you don't out yourself or violate DoD regulations, you risk drawing attention to yourself.
As a service member pushing to repeal DADT, here's what you CAN and CANNOT do:
Rallies
- You CAN attend an "end DADT" rally as a spectator.
- You CANNOT wear your uniform to the rally.
- You CANNOT speak in front of the rally.
Letters to the Editor
- You CAN write a letter to the editor of a paper expressing your personal view calling for the repeal of DADT and sign it as a service member.
- You CANNOT send a form letter to the editor of a newspaper calling for repeal of DADT – even if the letter is drafted by SLDN. Civilians are allowed to use form letters; military members are not allowed to use form letters.
Talking to or writing to your Member of Congress
- You CAN express your personal opinion to Congress that DADT should be repealed.
- You CANNOT tell your Congressperson that you are speaking on behalf of your unit or the military when you tell him/her that DADT should be repealed.
Talking on the radio/TV or at a program/group discussion
- You CAN express your personal opinion that DADT should be repealed when interviewed by the press.
- You CANNOT tell the press that you represent the armed forces when you say that DADT should be repealed.
Petition
- You CAN sign a petition favoring repeal of DADT.
- You CANNOT claim to represent the military when signing a petition to repeal DADT.
Bumper Sticker
- You CAN put a bumper sticker on your personal car calling for repeal of DADT.
- You CANNOT put a large poster on your personal car calling for repeal of DADT.
- You CANNOT put DADT repeal bumper stickers on military vehicles.
Voting
- You CAN vote for candidates who support repeal of DADT.
- You CAN encourage other people to vote during election times.
- You CANNOT campaign for a particular candidate representing yourself as a military member.
Contributions
- You CAN contribute money to organizations working towards repealing DADT, such as a group like SLDN.
SLDN Gala or other fundraisers
- You CAN attend an SLDN dinner or similar fundraiser.
- You CANNOT sell tickets for, or otherwise actively promote, the SLDN dinner or similar fundraising events.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Steven Benjamin
Stephen Benjamin is a former petty officer second class in the Navy. I have had the honor and privilage to meet him this past weekend and help him support the SLDN and the Repeal of the DADT Policy. Here is a collection of suff I compiled on him. First is his article he wrote to the New York Times. Following this article he has been featured on many news casts such as CNN and the Colbert Report. I have added them as well.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Translate
New York Times
by Stephen Benjamin
IMAGINE for a moment an American soldier deep in the Iraqi desert. His unit is about to head out when he receives a cable detailing an insurgent ambush right in his convoy’s path. With this information, he and his soldiers are now prepared for the danger that lies ahead.
Reports like these are regularly sent from military translators’ desks, providing critical, often life-saving intelligence to troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the military has a desperate shortage of linguists trained to translate such invaluable information and convey it to the war zone.
The lack of qualified translators has been a pressing issue for some time — the Army had filled only half its authorized positions for Arabic translators in 2001. Cables went untranslated on Sept. 10 that might have prevented the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Today, the American Embassy in Baghdad has nearly 1,000 personnel, but only a handful of fluent Arabic speakers.
I was an Arabic translator. After joining the Navy in 2003, I attended the Defense Language Institute, graduated in the top 10 percent of my class and then spent two years giving our troops the critical translation services they desperately needed. I was ready to serve in Iraq.
But I never got to. In March, I was ousted from the Navy under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which mandates dismissal if a service member is found to be gay.
My story begins almost a year ago when my roommate, who is also gay, was deployed to Falluja. We communicated the only way we could: using the military’s instant-messaging system on monitored government computers. These electronic conversations are lifelines, keeping soldiers sane while mortars land meters away.
Then, last October the annual inspection of my base, Fort Gordon, Ga., included a perusal of the government computer chat system; inspectors identified 70 service members whose use violated policy. The range of violations was broad: people were flagged for everything from profanity to outright discussions of explicit sexual activity. Among those charged were my former roommate and me. Our messages had included references to our social lives — comments that were otherwise unremarkable, except that they indicated we were both gay.
I could have written a statement denying that I was homosexual, but lying did not seem like the right thing to do. My roommate made the same decision, though he was allowed to remain in Iraq until the scheduled end of his tour.
The result was the termination of our careers, and the loss to the military of two more Arabic translators. The 68 other — heterosexual — service members remained on active duty, despite many having committed violations far more egregious than ours; the Pentagon apparently doesn’t consider hate speech, derogatory comments about women or sexual misconduct grounds for dismissal.
My supervisors did not want to lose me. Most of my peers knew I was gay, and that didn’t bother them. I was always accepted as a member of the team. And my experience was not anomalous: polls of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan show an overwhelming majority are comfortable with gays. Many were aware of at least one gay person in their unit and had no problem with it.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell” does nothing but deprive the military of talent it needs and invade the privacy of gay service members just trying to do their jobs and live their lives. Political and military leaders who support the current law may believe that homosexual soldiers threaten unit cohesion and military readiness, but the real damage is caused by denying enlistment to patriotic Americans and wrenching qualified individuals out of effective military units. This does not serve the military or the nation well.
Consider: more than 58 Arabic linguists have been kicked out since “don’t ask, don’t tell” was instituted. How much valuable intelligence could those men and women be providing today to troops in harm’s way?
In addition to those translators, 11,000 other service members have been ousted since the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was passed by Congress in 1993. Many held critical jobs in intelligence, medicine and counterterrorism. An untold number of closeted gay military members don’t re-enlist because of the pressure the law puts on them. This is the real cost of the ban — and, with our military so overcommitted and undermanned, it’s too high to pay.
In response to difficult recruiting prospects, the Army has already taken a number of steps, lengthening soldiers’ deployments to 15 months from 12, enlisting felons and extending the age limit to 42. Why then won’t Congress pass a bill like the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell”? The bipartisan bill, by some analysts’ estimates, could add more than 41,000 soldiers — all gay, of course.
As the friends I once served with head off to 15-month deployments, I regret I’m not there to lessen their burden and to serve my country. I’m trained to fight, I speak Arabic and I’m willing to serve. No recruiter needs to make a persuasive argument to sign me up. I’m ready, and I’m waiting.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Translate
New York Times
by Stephen Benjamin
IMAGINE for a moment an American soldier deep in the Iraqi desert. His unit is about to head out when he receives a cable detailing an insurgent ambush right in his convoy’s path. With this information, he and his soldiers are now prepared for the danger that lies ahead.
Reports like these are regularly sent from military translators’ desks, providing critical, often life-saving intelligence to troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the military has a desperate shortage of linguists trained to translate such invaluable information and convey it to the war zone.
The lack of qualified translators has been a pressing issue for some time — the Army had filled only half its authorized positions for Arabic translators in 2001. Cables went untranslated on Sept. 10 that might have prevented the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Today, the American Embassy in Baghdad has nearly 1,000 personnel, but only a handful of fluent Arabic speakers.
I was an Arabic translator. After joining the Navy in 2003, I attended the Defense Language Institute, graduated in the top 10 percent of my class and then spent two years giving our troops the critical translation services they desperately needed. I was ready to serve in Iraq.
But I never got to. In March, I was ousted from the Navy under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which mandates dismissal if a service member is found to be gay.
My story begins almost a year ago when my roommate, who is also gay, was deployed to Falluja. We communicated the only way we could: using the military’s instant-messaging system on monitored government computers. These electronic conversations are lifelines, keeping soldiers sane while mortars land meters away.
Then, last October the annual inspection of my base, Fort Gordon, Ga., included a perusal of the government computer chat system; inspectors identified 70 service members whose use violated policy. The range of violations was broad: people were flagged for everything from profanity to outright discussions of explicit sexual activity. Among those charged were my former roommate and me. Our messages had included references to our social lives — comments that were otherwise unremarkable, except that they indicated we were both gay.
I could have written a statement denying that I was homosexual, but lying did not seem like the right thing to do. My roommate made the same decision, though he was allowed to remain in Iraq until the scheduled end of his tour.
The result was the termination of our careers, and the loss to the military of two more Arabic translators. The 68 other — heterosexual — service members remained on active duty, despite many having committed violations far more egregious than ours; the Pentagon apparently doesn’t consider hate speech, derogatory comments about women or sexual misconduct grounds for dismissal.
My supervisors did not want to lose me. Most of my peers knew I was gay, and that didn’t bother them. I was always accepted as a member of the team. And my experience was not anomalous: polls of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan show an overwhelming majority are comfortable with gays. Many were aware of at least one gay person in their unit and had no problem with it.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell” does nothing but deprive the military of talent it needs and invade the privacy of gay service members just trying to do their jobs and live their lives. Political and military leaders who support the current law may believe that homosexual soldiers threaten unit cohesion and military readiness, but the real damage is caused by denying enlistment to patriotic Americans and wrenching qualified individuals out of effective military units. This does not serve the military or the nation well.
Consider: more than 58 Arabic linguists have been kicked out since “don’t ask, don’t tell” was instituted. How much valuable intelligence could those men and women be providing today to troops in harm’s way?
In addition to those translators, 11,000 other service members have been ousted since the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was passed by Congress in 1993. Many held critical jobs in intelligence, medicine and counterterrorism. An untold number of closeted gay military members don’t re-enlist because of the pressure the law puts on them. This is the real cost of the ban — and, with our military so overcommitted and undermanned, it’s too high to pay.
In response to difficult recruiting prospects, the Army has already taken a number of steps, lengthening soldiers’ deployments to 15 months from 12, enlisting felons and extending the age limit to 42. Why then won’t Congress pass a bill like the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell”? The bipartisan bill, by some analysts’ estimates, could add more than 41,000 soldiers — all gay, of course.
As the friends I once served with head off to 15-month deployments, I regret I’m not there to lessen their burden and to serve my country. I’m trained to fight, I speak Arabic and I’m willing to serve. No recruiter needs to make a persuasive argument to sign me up. I’m ready, and I’m waiting.
Support the Repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell"
Public Law 103-160, codified at 10 U.S.C. Sec. 654 more commonly known as 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is unique in that it is officially sanctioned discrimination. Any servicemember may be confronted with investigations and official inquirys if there is any suspicion of their sexuality. 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is the only law in the land that authorizes the firing of an American for being gay. There is no other federal, state, or local law like it. Indeed, 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is the only law that punishes gays, lesbians, and bisexuals for coming out. An honest statement of one's sexual orientation to anyone, anywhere, anytime, may lead to facing a discharge. Since 1993, over 12,000 Americans serving honorably in the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard have been discharged simply due to their sexuality, and many others have left to avoid discrimination and prejudice. Please support efforts to repeal this sanctioned discrimination.
Here are a few videos I found on DADT....
Here are a few videos I found on DADT....
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