SUMMARY: An analysis of U.S. military discharges under "don't ask, don't tell" shows that 244 medical specialists were fired for being gay or lesbian in the first 10 years of the ban.
A recent analysis of U.S. military discharges under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy reveals that 244 medical specialists were fired for being gay or lesbian during the first 10 years of the ban.
The California-based research group that released the data Wednesday said the volume of discharges is another example of how the military's gay ban "hampers military readiness."
"The consequences of shortfalls in medical specialists during wartime are serious," said Aaron Belkin, director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military. "When the military lacks the medical personnel it needs on the front lines, it compromises the well-being not only of its injured troops, but of the overextended specialists who have to work longer tours to replace those who have been discharged."
The 244 medical personnel discharges represent approximately 2.4 percent of the more than 10,000 gay and lesbian firings from 1994, when "don't ask, don't tell" was instituted, through 2003. They include physicians, nurses, biomedical laboratory technicians and other highly trained medical specialists -- many of whom were trained at taxpayer expense.
"You don't just go out on the street tomorrow and pluck someone from the general population who has an Air Force education, someone trained as a physician, someone who bleeds Air Force blue, who is willing to serve and that you can send to Iraq tomorrow," Beth Schissel, a gay former military health professional, told the Associated Press. She graduated from the Air Force Academy in 1989 and then went to medical school.
Last year, the Government Accountability Office' said it cost the Pentagon approximately $200 million to replace and retrain the gay and lesbian personnel discharged during the first 10 years of "don't ask, don't tell."
(Source: yahoonew.com)
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