The Writing on the Wall
Stars & Stripes reported yesterday on the case of Seamen Burnell Wright and Shaniqua Washington, two sailors onboard the USS Kitty Hawk who found themselves the targets of anti-gay harassment . . . and soon found themselves out of a job.
"The writing," as the paper reported on Sunday, "was on the wall."
Wright and Washington, who are both married and bisexual, found "Washington Loves Wright" scrawled on a bathroom wall. Then, shortly thereafter, a more threatning message appeared: "Dyke bitches gonna get stitches," along with other, equally disturbing graffiti. Washington even found lesbian pornography on her ship rack. Feeling unwelcome and threatened aboard the ship, both women left the service under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
"We were being singled out," Wright said. “We were forced to quit because what we were going through on the ship."
"They said they had seen 'Soldier’s Girl' a few months ago," the paper reported, "a movie about the 1999 killing of Army Pfc. Barry Winchell in Fort Campbell, Ky. It exemplified the worst-case scenario of what could happen in a homophobic military, they said. Winchell was dating a pre-operative transsexual when he was beaten to death with a baseball bat by two members of his company."
Winchell was also the subject of base graffiti in the days leading up to his murder.
To the credit of the Kitty Hawk's command, however, it appears that the harassment was taken seriously, and the sailors treated as fairly as the law allows.
The graffiti was removed, and the sailors, per their request, were dismissed under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Washington received an honorable discharge, but Wright’s chain of command recommended a general discharge — a much lower discharge characterization. The Kitty Hawk’s commanding officer, Capt. Ed McNamee, however, rejected the board’s recommendation and changed Wright’s discharge to honorable.
The resolution, though, doesn't resolve the difficult choice too many troops have to make: Continue a career they love, or go to work every day in an environment that is, by federal law, officially unwelcoming to them.
- Steve RallsLabels: harassment, in the news
-----05-07-07
Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.