As if we need another reason to criticize the military's homophobic "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, here is the ultimate hypocrisy: the Navy has recalled to active duty an openly gay sailor.
Stars and Stripes, the newspaper serving the armed forces, recently published an article about Petty Officer Second Class Jason Knight, who is now finishing up a tour of duty in Kuwait. Knight served once before, several years ago, and said he was discharged from the military in 2005 after he told the Navy he was gay; for which, of course, the Navy recouped his $13,000 signing bonus when it discharged him.
Last year, however, the Navy wanted Knight back and asked him to return to active duty. Knight told the paper that he's not staying in the closet this time. Not surprisingly, the Navy is downplaying the matter, and a spokesman told the Boston Globe that Knight was dismissed in 2005 simply because his service commitment was over, not because he was gay. We tend to believe Knight. Everyone is well aware that the need for additional troops in Iraq is having a negative effect on the military's recruiting and retention efforts. It's likely that the Navy needs Knight's valuable skill as a Hebrew linguist. And, as we have seen in the recent congressional hearings examining the lies told by the Pentagon in the case of Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman, the military will stop at nothing to evade the truth. It deliberately misled Tillman's own family about the circumstances of his death in Afghanistan resulting from a case of friendly fire and completely mischaracterized Lynch's rescue in Iraq.
The story of Knight's return to active duty would be comical if DADT wasn't such a serious issue. Careers have been ruined and the reputations of dedicated service members have been shredded. Countless dollars have been wasted compiling reports and conducting invasive investigations, even to the point where the military has been caught red-handed violating its own policy. DADT contributes to an atmosphere of suspicion and discrimination that in the extreme can result in anti-gay attacks and murders. Sailor Allen Schindler was murdered in 1992, and in 1999, Private First Class Barry Winchell was killed with a baseball bat at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, one of the most homophobic military installations in the country.
Knight's story lays bare the utter falsehood that openly gay troops undermine unit cohesion or morale. We saw the cracking of that myth earlier this year, when Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace spoke his mind and said gays are immoral – he didn't mention unit cohesion or troop morale as his reason why gays shouldn't serve. Now, with the recall of Knight to active duty, the myth has been completely shattered, as Sharra Greer with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network aptly noted.
Knight's experience is just one nail in the coffin for DADT. And everyone knows it. Military brass know it. Retired gay service members who have recently come out know it. The troops know it. And politicians know it. That's why Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain – who spoke movingly at the memorial service for gay 9/11 hero Mark Bingham, of all ironies – lacks any credibility when he says that gays should not serve in the military.
DADT is not sound. DADT is not reasonable. And there's at least one gay sailor currently serving to prove it.