Between the Lines: Military should throw out policy of secrecy
Jennifer Morgan
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: Opinion
For 14 years gays and lesbians in the armed forces have been forced to live in secrecy under the Don't ask Don't Tell policy passed under the Clinton administration.
Under this policy of secrecy members of the gay and lesbian community who serve our country are not able to benefit from the privileges their heterosexual counterparts receive. Unlike, heterosexual couples, gays and lesbians in the military are not able to list their partner as next of kin. Therefore, homosexual soldiers hide a major part of their true identity and give up their right to openly love whomever they chose for the greater good of the military and for the love of serving their country.
A lesbian soldier who leaves this spring for Kuwait, taught me that serving your country and loving the job are the most important things. She prepares each day to leave her partner, her son and family. Each day, she hears the reports, and goes home to see the brutality and loss on the news. Still she readies herself.
When she fills out the paperwork before her deployment, she won't be able to name her partner as next of kin. If, God forbid, something happens to her it will not be the woman who wears her ring that will receive the news.
I asked her why she does it, and she just said it was her job and her soldiers. She went further to say that without the military she didn't know what she'd do that she could love as much.
I have stood in the fields of two separate bases, one time saying goodbye and the next saying hello.
I have seen the way the heterosexual couples cling to one another. They embrace and kiss passionately before they board the plane, and a joyful embrace and kiss are always given upon their safe return.
My friends can't do that.
When a gay friend of mine ships out to Iraq this March, his long-time boyfriend won't be able to wrap him in his arms and kiss him. There won't be that last assurance of love and support before he boards the plane to war.
Under this policy of secrecy members of the gay and lesbian community who serve our country are not able to benefit from the privileges their heterosexual counterparts receive. Unlike, heterosexual couples, gays and lesbians in the military are not able to list their partner as next of kin. Therefore, homosexual soldiers hide a major part of their true identity and give up their right to openly love whomever they chose for the greater good of the military and for the love of serving their country.
A lesbian soldier who leaves this spring for Kuwait, taught me that serving your country and loving the job are the most important things. She prepares each day to leave her partner, her son and family. Each day, she hears the reports, and goes home to see the brutality and loss on the news. Still she readies herself.
When she fills out the paperwork before her deployment, she won't be able to name her partner as next of kin. If, God forbid, something happens to her it will not be the woman who wears her ring that will receive the news.
I asked her why she does it, and she just said it was her job and her soldiers. She went further to say that without the military she didn't know what she'd do that she could love as much.
I have stood in the fields of two separate bases, one time saying goodbye and the next saying hello.
I have seen the way the heterosexual couples cling to one another. They embrace and kiss passionately before they board the plane, and a joyful embrace and kiss are always given upon their safe return.
My friends can't do that.
When a gay friend of mine ships out to Iraq this March, his long-time boyfriend won't be able to wrap him in his arms and kiss him. There won't be that last assurance of love and support before he boards the plane to war.
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