{"id":8056,"date":"2006-07-28T11:20:42","date_gmt":"2006-07-28T15:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8056.html"},"modified":"2006-07-28T11:20:42","modified_gmt":"2006-07-28T15:20:42","slug":"well-ask-youd-better-not-tell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/well-ask-youd-better-not-tell\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We’ll ask, you’d better not tell’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The “[tag]don’t ask, don’t tell[\/tag]” policy has been a frustrating mess for years now, but we’re reaching a point in which it’s actually dangerous<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, though he says he never told his superiors he was gay and his accuser was never identified.<\/p>\n

[tag]Bleu Copas[\/tag], 30, told The Associated Press he is gay, but said he was “outed” by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.<\/p>\n

“I knew the policy going in,” Copas said in an interview on the campus of East Tennessee State University, where he is pursuing a master’s degree in counseling and working as a student adviser. “I knew it was going to be difficult.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Copas joined the Army after the 9\/11 attacks out of a sense of duty. He was willing to live with the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, because serving was so important to him. As an Arabic language specialist, the military was lucky to have him.<\/p>\n

But after a series of anonymous emails to Copas’ superior officers, Army officials apparently gave up on the first half of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” compromise.
\n<\/p>\n

The accuser, who signed his e-mails “John Smith” or “ftbraggman,” pressed Copas’ superiors to take action against him or “I will inform your entire battalion of the information that I gave you.”<\/p>\n

On December 2, investigators formally interviewed Copas and asked if he understood the military’s policy on homosexuals, if he had any close acquaintances who were gay, and if he was involved in community theater. He answered affirmatively.<\/p>\n

But Copas declined to answer when they asked, “Have you ever engaged in homosexual activity or conduct?” He refused to answer 19 of 47 questions before he asked for a lawyer and the interrogation stopped.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Paul Waldman put it<\/a>, Copas was drummed out of the Army because of the “We’ll ask, you’d better not tell” policy. Copas never said he was gay, but also didn’t want to commit perjury by lying about his sexual orientation during the military interrogation. He leaves the Army with an honorable discharge<\/a>, which lists his medals and commendations — and the reason he left the armed services.<\/p>\n

And speaking of the inanity of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, I had an item<\/a> a few months ago about Maj. [tag]Margaret Witt[\/tag], a poster woman for the Air Force’s flight nurse recruiting program, who excelled during an 19-year military career and who, in 2003, was awarded the Air Medal for her Middle East deployment and, later, the Air Force Commendation Medal, for saving the life of a Defense Department worker. She was drummed out of the Air Force for having a committed relationship with another woman, who was a civilian. (Another anonymous tip prompted an investigation.)<\/p>\n

In April, Witt filed a federal lawsuit against the Pentagon with the help of the ACLU. Yesterday, the highly decorated Air Force saw her case thrown out of court<\/a> by a federal judge.<\/p>\n

Air Force Reserve Maj. Margaret Witt, 42, of Spokane, had asked U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton to reinstate her, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a Texas anti-sodomy law. Leighton refused and dismissed her case after finding that the Texas decision did not affect the constitutionality of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the military’s policy prohibiting inquiries about the sex lives of service members but requiring the discharge of those who acknowledge being gay.<\/p>\n

Witt had claimed that being discharged under the policy would violate her free-speech and due-process rights. Leighton, however, rejected those claims.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Witt wants to use her 19 years of decorated service to treat injured troops who could no doubt benefit from her service during a time of war. She has sterling performance reviews and, in 1993, the Air Force literally used her photograph in brochures used to recruit nurses. But it doesn’t matter; her career is over.<\/p>\n

Right now, the Army has a shortage of Arabic language specialists and the Air Force has a shortage of qualified, well-trained flight nurses. But as of today, neither Bleu Copas nor Margaret Witt will be able to wear a uniform.<\/p>\n

If there’s a logical explanation for this policy, I’d love someone to explain it to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The “[tag]don’t ask, don’t tell[\/tag]” policy has been a frustrating mess for years now, but we’re reaching a point in which it’s actually dangerous. A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, though he says he never told his superiors he was gay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}