On the same day that President Barack Obama nominated Chuck Hagel to be his next defense secretary, the Pentagon quietly settled a class action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. Now gay troops who were forced out under the old "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy will be given full discharge pay.
According to the ACLU, if someone served six years in the military and was discharged involuntarily, Congress entitles the service member to separation pay to help ease their transition to civilian life. But the military had a policy – not required by any law – of cutting that separation pay in half for people who were discharged, even honorably, for "homosexuality."
The ACLU noted that the policy "needlessly compounded the discrimination inflicted by the now-repealed 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' law in the first place." Two years ago the ACLU filed its class action lawsuit against the Defense Department seeking full separation pay for the lesbian and gay service members who were shortened pay when they were kicked out. Under terms of the settlement announced January 7, service members involuntarily separated from the military after November 10, 2004, will receive the remainder of their pay.
The lead plaintiff was former Air Force Staff Sergeant Richard Collins, who served nine years before being discharged. According to an ACLU statement about the case, Collins was seen kissing his civilian boyfriend, in a car at a stoplight, when he was off duty, out of uniform, and 10 miles off base. After being discharged under DADT, Collins discovered that his severance pay had been cut in half just because he's gay. He approached the ACLU not about challenging his discharge under DADT but about getting his full separation pay – another $12,000.
The ACLU said that the Pentagon withheld about $2.4 million from at least 180 other honorably discharged veterans.
James Esseks, director of the ACLU's LGBT and AIDS project, called the policy change "wonderful (if overdue) recognition that these soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines deserve no less than all the others who served honorably and defended their country with their lives."
It's a good thing the Pentagon settled the suit now, before Hagel takes over. The former Nebraska senator spewed a string of anti-gay remarks in a 1998 interview, and although he has apologized for his remarks against former Ambassador James Hormel, his nomination leaves many LGBTs wondering what will happen to the military if he wins Senate confirmation.
In additional news a more disturbing development was reported over the weekend by John Aravosis of Americablog. It seems that the Defense Department uses web-filtering software made by the company Blue Coat Services that unfairly blocks access to LGBT and progressive websites including the Human Rights Campaign and Towleroad, while censoring other LGBT sites like Americabog and Pam's House Blend. Aravosis noted this week that the Pentagon "has gotten the message and will be investigating" the situation. Of course, the software did not block anti-gay sites like the National Organization for Marriage.
We expect the Pentagon to remedy this situation quickly, especially now that gays are openly serving in the military. Some sites are banned because they are labeled "LGBT," "personal," or "political." This "personal" distinction is confusing to us because most of the gay blogs are not really personal in nature; they share LGBT news and information. At least one of the Pentagon's filters has a censorship category called "LGBT," Aravosis wrote, "and if you're deemed 'LGBT' by the Pentagon, they ban you."
These Internet filters crop up in school libraries too, and the suggested categories are just an example of programmers equating "LGBT" with porn or perverts. It's time for filtering firms to realize that, as gay pioneer Frank Kameny – who himself was fired by the federal government – said, "Gay is good."