The U.S. military discharged a total of 726 service members last year for being gay, a 10 percent increase on 2004, The New York Times has reported.
The Army, the largest branch of the US military, discharged 386 gay personnel, followed by the Navy with 177, the Air Force with 88 and the Marines, the smallest force, with 75.
A sharp increase occurred at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where in 1999 a soldier was bludgeoned to death in his barracks by fellow soldiers who thought he was homosexual. In 2004, 19 service members from the base were discharged and the number climbed to 49 in 2005.
Under a policy introduced by the Clinton administration known as ‘don't ask, don't tell’, the military cannot inquire into service members' sex lives unless there is evidence of homosexual conduct. Those who volunteer the information are discharged. More than 11,000 members have been discharged for that reason, say the gay rights group, the Service
The overall number of service members who were dismissed because they were found to be gay or because they disclosed their sexuality fell in the period from 2002 to 2004.
The total of such discharges in 2004 was 653, compared with 770 in 2003, 885 in 2002 and 1,227 in 2001.
(Source:GCN)
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