PRIDE GUIDE 2003

GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

B-9

Internet resources for LGBT servicemembers and veterans

"My country gave me medals for killing two men, and a dishonorable discharge for loving one.

American Veterans for Equal Rights www.glbva.org

-Leonard Matlovich

The organization is a member-driven group protecting the rights of LGBT veterans and striving to end the current Pentagon policy on gays in the military.

Ohio "Buckeye" Chapter of American Veterans

for Equal Rights

www.averbuckeyes.org/AVERsite.html

State chapter of AVER serving Ohio.

Gay Veterans Yahoo Group

groups.yahoo.com/group/gay-veterans/

An active E-mail discussion group composed of LGBT veterans.

GLBT Disabled Veterans of America

www.geocities.com/Pentagon/1151/enter.html

An organization committed to advocacy on behalf of LGBT veterans using the Veterans' Administration medical system.

Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu

A program of the University of California-Santa Barbara, the center does research into the policies of governments around the world relating to gays in the military.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network

www.sldn.org

The largest organization in the nation advocating on behalf of LGBT service members and veterans.

Military

Continued from page B-1

Serving with gay coalition members

Asked in writing if U.S. servicemembers reported any problems with unit cohesion, morale, or effectiveness resulting from service next to British units with openly gay members in Iraq, the Department of Defense replied: "We are not aware of any such incidents."

Army spokesperson Martha Rudd reported that the Army Central Command Policy Officer also "recieved no such reports."

"We have no way of knowing how many, if any, members of the coalition practice homosexual behavior. Nor would we be concerned with tracking such statistics," said the Department of Defense about U.S. forces' interaction with the openly gay servicemembers from Britain and other coalition nations.

Evans' study documents that gay discharges go down during times of need, and up during times of peace.

"Discharges often all but stop during conflict, only to pick up again as soon as fighting is over," said Evans, citing figures from World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the 1991 Gulf War, when gay discharges were actually put on hold.

But during those conflicts, the gay ban was a matter of military personnel policy. The 1993 passage of "don't ask, don't tell" by Congress made it law.

Still, the number of discharges in 2002 dropped nearly 30 percent to 906, the fewest since 1996.

The Department of Defense answers questions about that by saying, “We have no way of knowing what factors contributed to the decline in discharges in fiscal year 2002, and we cannot predict what future discharge patterns, established by individual behavior, will look like."

Rudd said there is no central decision made in the Army to reduce gay discharges during times of conflict, adding that the Army discharged 113 gay members in the first quarter of fiscal year 2003.

"Expanded over the year, that would be 452 discharges, which is up from 429 by the Army in fiscal year 2002," said Rudd.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a Washington group that monitors "don't ask, don't tell" and defends gay servicemembers, was scheduled to lead a group to Capitol Hill June 3 to try to convince Congress to repeal "don't ask, don't tell".

Jen says her Pride message to Congress and the Department of Defense is "Change the policy as soon as possible, so people can get the recognition they deserve and stop the horrible inequity."

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