Down in Tacoma this week, a trial is under way to determine whether Major Margaret Witt, formerly assigned to McChord Air Force Base in Tacoma, should have been kicked out of the military in 2006 after a two-year investigation discovered that she is a lesbian. It’s the latest test of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which bans homosexuals from serving openly.
The trial was ordered by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2008, which required that, in order to discharge people for being gay, the military must make a case-by-case determination that each discharged person is harmful to military readiness. That’s going to be hard to prove. Witt had an 18-year career in the air force, earning awards and commendations (and even being used on a military recruiting poster) before she was suddenly kicked out.
“We are presenting evidence that she was very popular with her fellow soldiers, and that her sexual orientation was not an issue,” says Doug Honig, spokesman for the ACLU of Washington, which is representing Witt. “What really hurt morale was her being dismissed. It shows the hypocrisy of DADT and stands the logic on its head.”
The U.S. Justice wDepartment, arguing for the military, will attempt to show that Witt’s homosexuality did harm military readiness, and thus necessitated her dismissal under DADT.
Witt’s trial comes at a moment of increasing pressure to scrap DADT altogether. A federal judge in California ruled on September 9 that DADT is unconstitutional, and the U.S. Senate is planning to vote on whether to officially roll back the policy in the near future. While Witt’s case cannot result in any formal order to nullify DADT nationally, amid other pressures to repeal the policy, it could provide a high-profile example to show how DADT has become absurd in practice.
Witt is expected to testify early in the week of September 20.
I am just DYING to hear the ridiculous arguments the Military will come up with to denigrate this officer and try to prove her service “harmed military readiness”. Brother, as Ripley said in Aliens “did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?”
@1 – I loved your Ripley quote. Your nerd cred is intact.
While it would obviously be a great end result I don’t know if this is a good case for it in the “winnable” sense:
http://www.queerty.com/is-a-federal-cour…
She actually was being investigated for affairs, including with subordinates. That’s a big no-no for officers. They’ll go after her for the affairs.
Showdown in the Senate over DADT this week. McCain threatening to filibuster the procedure to bring it up for debate — he doesn’t even think the Senate should discuss it, let alone vote on it.
The Stranger writers and Dan Savage in particular have been very vocal about criticizing the Administration for a perceived lack of movement on this issue; now the administration is pushing for DADT’s repeal. Maybe it’s time to start giving credit where it’s due, and to make some noise in support of your position when it might make some difference?
I look forward to the day when sexual deviants are allowed to adopt children and serve openly in the military. I can’t believe that anyone would condemn or oppose this! I am in the Navy and I want our homosexuals to be free to tell us about their sexual deviation and I want them to be loud and proud! I want to be able to look around me and 24/7 on a 6 month deployment and take comfort in knowing that the people who I’m working closely with and sharing living quarters with are sexual deviants. I want them to be able to walk around on the boat all day long proclaiming their deviation for me and all of my fellow honorable servicemembers to hear, including the Captain, the Commodore and all of the marines on the boat! I will not rest until sexual deviants are practicing their deviation openly, loud and proud, in full military uniform. Dear God please get them into the service. And to those of you that are in the service having to conceal your sexual deviation; thank you for your service! We’re gonna make sure you can be open, it might take some more work, but we’ll make it happen!!! God bless you guys