Suicide Rates Underscore Importance of New DADT Instructions
Earlier this week, an article published by The New York Times (“Despite Army’s Prevention Efforts, Suicides Continue”) highlights the persisting epidemic of suicides in the military:
The spate of suicides in Texas reflects a chilling reality: nearly 20 months after the Army began strengthening its suicide prevention program and working to remove the stigma attached to seeking psychological counseling, the suicide rate among active service members remains high and shows little sign of improvement. Through August, at least 125 active members of the Army had ended their own lives, exceeding the morbid pace of last year, when there were a record 162 suicides. …
General Chiarelli and other top commanders have argued that the roots of the rise in military suicides are complex and that blame cannot be laid solely on repeated deployments. The majority of soldiers who have committed suicide — about 80 percent — have had only one deployment or none at all. Another factor is that after years of war, the Army is now attracting recruits already inclined toward risky behavior and thus more prone to suicide, according to a 15-month Army review of suicides released in July.
LGBT service members suffer from the same mental health and suicide issues as other military personnel, along with the added stress of serving under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Unfortunately, lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members are frequently uncomfortable seeking help from military mental health professionals because of the secrecy that DADT mandates. Until this March, they were right to be concerned. Military health professionals could in the past – and on some occasions actually did – out their gay clients.
Following Secretary Gates and Chairman Mullen’s February 2nd promise to make DADT “more humane,” however, DoD issued new DADT Instructions on March 25 which protect lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members from discharge when they reveal information to military psychotherapists (and to other individuals in a limited number of circumstances). Unfortunately, these protections do not cover transgender service members.
Young gay men and women who join the military may feel they are in a more difficult position than most because of DADT. As long as repeal of this law is delayed, gay service members and young gay men and women across the nation will continue to hear the message that they are “less than,” that we don’t value their service, and that they are second-class citizens not worthy of serving our nation. This is not the time to send that message.
Contact both your senators today and tell them to repeal DADT this year.
10-14-10 By Aaron Tax, SLDN Legal Director |
1 Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.Steve Clark Hall in San Francisco on October 15, 2010 at 12.25 pm
In light of these issues, USNA Out, the organization of the LGBT Alumni of the U. S. Naval Academy, added some stronger wording to our “Gouge for Mids” page to emphasize the availability of mental health services for Midshipmen at USNA. Our parallel organization for USAFA, the Blue-Alliance, made similar changes to their “hook for LGBT Cadets” page at http://blue-alliance.org/content/hook-lgbt-cadets.
Is suicide a problem at USNA today? Probably not, the Mids who survive at the Academy are pretty mentally tough compared to their civilian peers, although total pressures can be fairly extensive, and being LGBT in an environment not welcoming of that severely increases that pressure for some. We believe that the current and recent midshipmen who know other LGBT midshipmen have a very unique advantage in that they have each other for support. It is the outlier Midshipman who feels alone about whom there is the most concern.
There are only two confirmed and one suspected suicides among USNA LGBT Alumni, all in an era when homosexuality was considered quite differently than in today’s society. This is not saying that it is necessarily any easier for some today to come with the understanding of who they are, but the available resources to them are vastly improved, particularly after March 25.
And would a midshipman look at USNA Out dot org as a resource? (A few mids unfamiliar to us do stumble upon this page periodically, but we do not know why they come here to visit.) So this is probably more of a make us feel good maneuver than a life saver for the alone, distraught mid. But we would be remiss if we did not do everything appropriate we can do to preclude a potentially tragic situation.