Testifying in New York: Part II
Below are remarks delivered by SLDN board member Cholene Espinoza at Friday's New York City Council hearing on a resolution calling on Congress to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'
As a resident of the city of New York, a Veteran, and a very grateful citizen of this country, I thank you for your willingness to consider Resolution No. 1170A. This resolution calls for the end to federally mandated discrimination in our armed forces. As Amelia Erhart once said, “Courage is the price life exacts for granting one’s freedom.” Your courage today will not only expand freedom in this country, but it will also make our nation more secure.
I am also grateful to two groups, the New York Chapter of the American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER) represented by Denny Meyer who championed the first New York City Council resolution for open service and thereby began a national trend. I am also grateful to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) where I serve on the board. SLDN has two roles, one to end the ban on gays in the military and to provide free legal services to those adversely impacted by "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," regardless of their sexual orientation. SLDN has championed the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which will overturn the existing law known as Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. We currently have 141 sponsors in the US House of Representatives and are awaiting a sponsor to introduce this legislation in the Senate. I believe your resolution will put pressure on those who are sitting on the sidelines.
To give you some background on me, the US military was my conduit to the American Dream. I was blessed to graduate in the seventh class of women at the United States Air Force Academy in 1987, and from there I went on to flight school. I was a jet instructor pilot for four years before being the second woman to be selected to fly the U-2 Reconnaissance aircraft. I flew missions all over the world to include combat missions over Iraq. I have seen Iraq alone from above 70,000 feet from the cockpit of a U-2. I have also seen Iraq at 5.5 feet as an embedded journalist with the US Marine Corps 1st Tank Battalion in an unarmored Humvee on the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and with the US Army’s First Armored Division in Baghdad in the summer of 2003.
The estimated cost to the American taxpayers for my training was close to $2.0 million dollars. Today, I am a commercial airline pilot and while I am grateful for my job, my heart is still with the men and women in uniform who are serving today. I wish I were one of them. I feel an enormous sense of responsibility to them as well as to the Iraqi people. They face a 360-degree threat zone that requires the finest human resources.
I did not violate the military’s policy prohibiting homosexual conduct during the thirteen years I wore the uniform. I left the military voluntarily. I believe that my country needs my service today, but my personal integrity is the most important value I hold. I cannot pretend to be someone I am not as "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" requires.
The American people take that phrase “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” at face value. Most believe that the policy allows a person to serve as a gay American so long as he or she does not tell anyone. Unfortunately, as we know from our SLDN client base of approximately 75 cases at any one time, men and women can be discharged because someone else “tells,” such as a mother who can’t stand the thought of her son returning to Iraq, or a jealous partner, or an intercepted innocent e mail from an admirer back home. And because the criterion for discharge is “credible evidence from a reliable source,” with no standard for what “credible” or “reliable” means, the policy is arbitrarily enforced at the discretion of the commander.
Personal vendettas are not uncommon. For example, SLDN could not save the career of a heterosexual US Air Force Officer who was wrongly accused of passing a dollar bill by mouth at the Squadron Christmas party even though several witnesses, including his wife sitting next to him all night, said it never happened. After nineteen years of service, he was discharged for “homosexual conduct,” which is permanently stamped on his discharge record—a record typically required by future employers. Another SLDN client was investigated after a random barracks inspection turned up a Melissa Ethridge CD. The thinking was that since Melissa Ethridge is a lesbian, this soldier must also be a lesbian. Over 8000 have reached out to SLDN since "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" became law in 1993.
On the other hand, SLDN client Sergeant Darren Manzella, who was featured in Leslie Stahl’s 60 Minutes piece, was allowed to serve even though he showed his commander clear evidence that he is gay. Of course neither Sergeant Manzella, nor others who serve openly gay can be sure that they won’t be discharged when they are placed under another individual’s command.
The military has changed a great deal since I left in 1995. The younger generations are unwilling to live a lie. Collectively they embrace diversity and demand honesty and transparency, particularly as they lay their lives on the line each day. There is a bond of trust and intimacy between those who face the threat of daily extinction. Sergeant Manzella told me that he could not live a lie given the fact that he was facing life and death daily as a combat medic. His fellow soldiers were his family and honesty was essential.
None of the arguments that are put forth by the opposition in terms of gays reducing unit cohesion or readiness have ever been proven in the field. Ironically, now that we are fighting two wars, discharges for homosexuality are down and SLDN has been able to save a record number of careers. Even before "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" became law, the RAND corporation, which was commissioned by the Department of Defense to study the impact of allowing gays to serve openly, concluded that there is no evidence to support the hypothesis that gays reduce unit cohesion or readiness.
Since RAND’s initial study, we have data from 24 nations that strengthens RAND’s fifteen-year-old conclusions. But more importantly, our own combat tested troops on the ground reveal that homosexuality is a non-issue. SLDN knows of at least 500 service men and women serving openly. Ironically, those in the closet are the ones who experience the harassment. The sum of this data points to the fact that that the real reason for the continued policy is bigotry, not military readiness or cohesion.
"Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," not gays serving openly, is what is having a negative impact on the quality and readiness of our uniformed services. The policy was crafted at the end of the Cold War. The military was in an involuntary Reduction In Forces or “RIF” mode. Today, we cannot find enough fully qualified to keep up with the required deployments.
The Army had to reduce its standards in 2006 in order to meet its recruiting goals. Convicts and individuals previously unqualified physically and/or mentally are thrown in with our troops who met the original standards. Imagine showing up to work tomorrow and your new co-worker has a history of violent behavior, or can’t meet the mental standards required be a qualified team member? The cost of this reduction in standards has also tarnished the honor and reputation of our armed forces. It was disclosed, for example, that a member of the 101st Airborne Division had been a recipient of a “moral waiver” from the US Army after he was charged with a rape and quadruple murder in Iraq. Meanwhile, the US military discharges two members a day under "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," and well over 4400 since 2001, with over 800 discharges of members in critical fields such as strategic languages, medical professionals, combat engineers, and explosives experts.
While the recruitment argument is compelling, the retention numbers have a much more damaging impact to readiness. It is estimated that approximately 4000 troops voluntarily walk out the door every year. Just as I did, they take their skills and never turn back. It takes one linguist, for example, to intercept a communication that would lead to a terrorist attack or detect the location of an Improvised Explosive Device. The military has discharged over 58 Arabic linguists that we know of. Many of these linguists are clients of SLDN and never practice their language skills after leaving the military.
The voices for change are exceptionally credible. Distinguished military and civilian leaders who were originally for "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" have changed their mind. Senator Alan Simpson, Retired Republican US Senator and member of the Iraq Study Group, General Shalikashvili, Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and recently 28 Flag Officers are included in these distinguished voices for change. The voices of dissent that have based their position on their own internalized homophobia and/or political expediency are weakening in the military as well as the Congress.
The public is ready for Congress to pass the Military Readiness Enhancement Act. Three national independent polls indicate that approximately seventy-eight percent of the American people are in favor of gays being allowed to serve openly. This is almost the reverse of the number of Americans who opposed President Truman, (sixty-three percent), when he desegregated the military in 1948. Those in favor of ending the ban increase to over ninety percent for ages 18-29. In addition, a majority of self-identified conservatives and Republicans support repeal as well as regular church-goers and those who do not support any other measure related to civil liberties for LGBT citizens.
Finally, our nation is investing hundreds of billions of dollars into defense, but this investment is useless without quality people. No matter who the next Commander-in-Chief might be, the demand for quality men and women in uniform will not end. Over the years, I have learned that when we expand the liberty of the individual, we are collectively strengthened. Thank you for voting to give the 65,000 gay Americans currently serving our nation the freedom to serve. We will be a better and more secure nation because of your actions.
- Cholene EspinozaLabels: resolutions
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