September 20

Repeal of "Don't Ask - Don't Tell" Policy
Goes into Effect Today: September 20, 2011
The U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy officially ends today. The law was repealed two months ago, but the required 60-day waiting period after the law was signed expires today. Under those previous rules homosexuals were allowed to serve as long as they kept their sexual orientation to themselves. About 14,000 troops have been expelled from service since that controversial policy took effect in 1993, but most were given honorable discharges that allowed gay service members to draw benefits.

About 100,000 troops were discharged between World War II and 1993 for being gay and lost their benefits as a result. Recently you may have read about Melvin Dwork, a WW II Navy serviceman (shown in vintage photos above) who had his 1944 discharge changed from "undesirable" to "honorable" last month. It was believed to be the first time the Pentagon had taken such a step on behalf of a World War II veteran since the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."

The Navy notified the 89-year-old former corpsman that he will now be eligible for the benefits he had long been denied, including medical care and a military burial. Dwork, a successful interior designer in New York, spent decades fighting to remove the blot on his record. "I resented that word 'undesirable,' " said Dwork,  "To me it was a terrible insult.... I think it was the worst word they could have used."

An expanded post about Mr. Dwork can be found on my other blog, Gay Influence. Just click on this link:
http://gayinfluence.blogspot.com/2011/09/melvin-dworks-honorable-discharge.html


Some military brass who opposed lifting the ban on serving openly used fear tactics to support their views, such as those Marine officials who claimed that a great percentage of Marines would leave active duty if the old law was repealed. We were told that our Marines, who are supposed to be those most fearless and macho of our nation’s soldiers, would leap back into their mother's arms before they’d take a shower with an openly gay soldier. Please. How they flatter themselves.

Navy Lt. Gary Ross, above left, speaks with partner Dan Swezy before exchanging wedding vows this morning, in Duxbury, Vermont. The two traveled from Arizona to the Eastern time zone so that they could recite their vows at the first possible moment after the formal repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The partners of 11 years were married at the stroke of midnight, just as the ban ended.

The DADT policy was developed by Charles Moskos, a sociology professor at Northwestern University whose proposal won the backing of President Bill Clinton’s administration. Moskos, who died in 2008, had his own reservations about the policy he created, but could think of none better. In an interview, he once compared DADT to Winston Churchill’s definition of democracy: “It’s the worst system possible, except for any other.”

Today is a feather in the cap of President Obama, who is having a tough time of it these days. We gay men are at last honored by the fruitful completion of one of his campaign promises. Lifting the ban brings a halt to all pending investigations, discharges and other proceedings that were initiated under the old law. However, existing military standards of personal conduct, such as those pertaining to public displays of affection, will continue, regardless of sexual orientation, so be careful.

Vintage Tuesday: circa 1982