Army Linguists fired for being gay

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Army Dismisses Gay Arabic Linguists

Thu Nov 14, 4:27 PM ET

By MARGIE MASON, Associated Press Writer

 

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Nine Army linguists, including six trained to speak Arabic, have been dismissed from the military because they are gay.

 

 

 

The soldiers' dismissals come at a time when the military is facing a critical shortage of translators and interpreters for the war on terrorism.

 

 

Seven of the soldiers were discharged after telling superiors they are gay, and the two others got in trouble when they were caught together after curfew, said Steve Ralls, spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a group that defends homosexuals in the military.

 

 

Six were specializing in Arabic, two were studying Korean and one was studying Mandarin Chinese. All were at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, the military's primary language training center.

 

 

The government has aggressively recruited Arabic speakers since the Sept. 11 attacks.

 

 

"We face a drastic shortage of linguists, and the direct impact of Arabic speakers is a particular problem," said Donald R. Hamilton, who documented the need for more linguists in a report to Congress as part of the National Commission on Terrorism.

 

 

One of the discharged linguists said the military's policy on gays is hurting its cause.

 

 

"It's not a gay-rights issue. I'm arguing military proficiency issues — they're throwing out good, quality people," said Alastair Gamble, a former Army specialist.

 

 

Harvey Perritt, spokesman for the Army Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe in Tidewater, Va., confirmed the dismissals occurred between October 2001 and September 2002, but declined to comment further on the cases.

 

 

He said 516 linguists enrolled in the Arabic course this year at the Monterey institute and 365 graduated.

 

 

The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy allows gays to serve provided they keep quiet about their sexual orientation.

 

Gamble and former Pfc. Robert Hicks were discovered in Gamble's room during a surprise inspection in April, Gamble said.

 

After their discharges, Gamble and Hicks applied for other federal jobs where they could use their language skills in the war on terrorism, but neither was hired, Gamble said.

 

This is a pretty remarkably stupid thing for them to do, since they're apparently short on translators in the first place.

 

"It's not a gay-rights issue. I'm arguing military proficiency issues — they're throwing out good, quality people," said Alastair Gamble, a former Army specialist.

 

That line sums it up the best, I think. Why worry about someone's sexual orientation when they're doing their job well, even if it is against their policy?

[Guest J*ingus]

Devil's advocate: it is the law right now, and the linguists knew it. Why did they come out and admit it?

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I doubt it was a situation where they went right up to their superior and said, "Hey, we're gay."

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

"Seven of the soldiers were discharged after telling superiors they are gay, and the two others got in trouble when they were caught together after curfew, said Steve Ralls, spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a group that defends homosexuals in the military."

 

Sounds like it to me...

[Guest Olympic Slam]

Really stupid on both ends, they gotta get rid of this anti-gay stuff in the military for as long as we're operating this war on terror. A quality solider is more important than their sexual orientation

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Devil's advocate: it is the law right now, and the linguists knew it. Why did they come out and admit it?

Maybe they didn't want to support the "war on terror" anymore?

[Guest Tyler McClelland]

...and the Army was dumb enough to let them go.

 

Machoism at its best.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

The Army was only enforcing the law.

 

Why did they say anything. They had to know the rules and they'd be kicked out of the Army.

[Guest Retro Rob]

First of all, I think the whole thing with homosexuals not being allowed to join the army unless they keep quiet about their sexual orientation is unconstitutional, but that's a whole nother matter. Whether it was the law or not, these guys should have been allowed to stay because currently they are a group of the only Arabic translators we have. In our country's history, we have stretched many rules, so why not apply that concept here. Take the Louisianna Purchase for example. Jefferson had no right to buy that land, but did so anyway. Reason being, without that purchase our country would never have prospered. Now with these 7 guys fired, our country is at a disadvantage in the war on Terror.

[Guest Vern Gagne]

I still don't get why the 7 told their commanding officers. They knew the rules before hand.

[Guest El Satanico]

Really stupid on both ends, they gotta get rid of this anti-gay stuff in the military for as long as we're operating this war on terror.

So why exactly don't you have a problem with them keeping this stupid law in place when they aren't doing this "war on terror" stuff?

[Your Paragon of Virtue]

It's a stupid law in the first place, and if you really don't want sexual orientation to be an issue, than don't make a big deal about someone who makes that point. Unless of course they want it to be an issue, than it's a whole other story...