Oh, the moral majesty of the next generation. Below are excerpts of the August 9 resignation letter to the U.S. Military Academy from third-year student Katherine Miller, a lesbian who could no longer attend the academy on a hypocritical basis. (Where, by the way, are the resignations of adult officers who refused to serve the hateful policy in the Middle East?)
Subject: Written Statement of Resignation and Formal Disclosure of Homosexual Orientation...
3. STATEMENT OF RESIGNATION:
a. As of 9AUG2010 I am officially announcing my resignation from the United States Military Academy as a result of U.S.C. Title 10§654 policy concerning homosexuality in the armed forces.
b. I have not engaged in homosexual acts while a member of the U.S. Army, however I identify unequivocally as a lesbian. At present, I find military service to be incompatible with personal values.
c. My resignation is a completely personal decision; I was not pressured by military or civilian personnel to pursue resignation or disclose my sexual orientation....
5. RATIONALE FOR RESIGNATION
a. I have committed myself to evaluating the military’s gay ban from an academic standpoint. I published an academic style op-ed with the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, presented my research “A Network Evaluation of Cadet Attitudes toward Gays in the Military” at an INSNA conference, and was scheduled to present my DEOMI junior research “An Estimate of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Deaths in the War on Terror” before the Undersecretary of Defense in July (the presentation was postponed for the fall). I have also attended a Military Leadership Diversity Commission (MLDC) meeting and a House Armed Services Committee hearing addressing military personnel policies. Through my academic endeavors I cannot objectively rationalize the military’s policy concerning homosexuality.
b. The entire Office of Personnel and Readiness under OSD is devoted to development, education, and enforcement of personnel policies in order to ensure recruitment, retention, and maximization of DoD personnel. I intend for my resignation to offer a concrete example of the consequences of a failed law and social policy.
c. Specifically, I have created a heterosexual dating history to recite to fellow cadets when they inquire. I have endured sexual harassment for fear of being accused as a lesbian by rejecting or reporting these events. I have been coerced into ignoring derogatory comments towards homosexuals for fear of being alienated for my viewpoint. In short, I have lied to my classmates and compromised my integrity and my identity by adhering to existing military policy.
d. While at the academy, I have made a deliberate effort to develop myself academically, physically, and militarily, but in terms of holistic personal growth I have reached a plateau. I am unwilling to suppress an entire portion of my identity any longer because it has taken a significant personal, mental, and social toll on me and detrimentally affected my professional development. I have experienced a relentless cognitive dissonance by attempting to adhere to §654 and retain my integrity, and I am retrospectively convinced that I am unable to live up to the Army Values as long as the policy remains in place.
6. INTENTIONS FOR FUTURE SERVICE:
a. In the event that§654 is repealed and replaced with a policy of nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, I plan to rejoin the military later in my career and serve as an officer in the United States Army. Service to others remains a core value to me, and I intend to repay my country for all the freedoms I enjoy as a U.S. citizen. I will continue to develop myself physically and mentally so that I will be properly prepared to rejoin the military in the future.
b. I will attend Yale University in September 2010 and reapply to West Point for AY2011-2012 in the event of repeal of§654 and enactment of a non-discrimination policy.
c. As a civilian, I will participate in formation and implementation of the repeal of§654 via means of academia and political activism...
As a sidebar, that’s one of the toughest things to do as a homosexual, at least in my experience. You wouldn’t believe how much work it takes to put up that front. Even if you manage to develop a romantic attachment, your feelings for the other person never mature past the point of what a straight person would have being lifelong best friends with a person of their own gender. And the other person senses, sooner or later, that your heart just isn’t in it (assuming you’re lucky enough to be with someone who cares).
I can easily understand those with homo-erotic tendencies (cause I’ve got a surfeit of my own, natch) who want to join the Military. Where else can you get so close to so many people of your own sex. What other legal activity gives you the opportunity to get so many of there bodily fluids all over you (You know, the “pink mist”)?
I really have never been able to understand this whole gay service thing. As far as I can see, the Army is just one big Gay organisation.
Nothing disgusted me more about being drafted than the certainty of spending so much time so goddam close to so many men.
But then, that’s one thing I’ve always known about myself; deep down, I’m a lesbian.
I hope the government doesn’t send Ms. Miller an enormous bill for the costs of her West Point education. I know that sort of thing has been done in the past.
No wonder we can’t win a war! Holistic health? Good lord! I don’t understand what these people think they are doing when they join the military, or what they think the military is for.
I didn’t join the military because I don’t believe the people who send U.S. troops to war have any respect for the lives of average Americans, and will send them to places they shouldn’t be to do things they may have a hard time dealing with later. Too bad she couldn’t fulfill her GI Jane fantasies or radical political agenda, but if she truly had the brains needed for West Point, she would have seen where this would end in the first place.
I used to think I knew what the US military was for. And then, there was Abu Gharib.
I know what you mean. I’m glad I was more or less forced (in the form of being offered a strong inducement) to retire from the reserves in 1994.
Look, how many men would die for, or even kill for, their wife or family? I think the divorce rate and the manner of those divorces pretty much answers that question, don’t you? A wife is a thing to be acquired and cast off, same with children, and support must be forced by legal action. But a man (or woman) joins the military glorying in and accepting the fact that he (or she) may kill for or die for his fellow soldiers of the same sex! And people try to claim it isn’t basically a homo-erotic organisation, not that there’s anything wrong with that, except for the killing part.
That’s why I never even considered joining the Army; I couldn’t imagine being that close to that many men, let alone taking orders from them unless I was stone, flat-ass, out-and-out gay.
I might consider joining an all-female brigade, but then they would all order me around, and I’m already married. I don’t now if I would die for my wife, but there’s a very good chance she will end up killing me, and get away with it, if her lawyer can make sure she ends up in front of a woman judge. “Case Dismissed. Love ‘em right, or leave ‘em alone! You’re free to go”.
Anyway, that’s what happened with her first husband. Oh, he lived, but he limps, and we just waves at the girls on Aurora Ave. and drives on. Oh well, at least I know to get the can out to the curb on time every Wednesday.
He (Mehlman) often wondered why gay voters never formed common cause with Republican opponents of Islamic jihad, which he called “the greatest anti-gay force in the world right now.”
- Marc Ambinder on Ken Mehlman (Gay Jewish architect of Bush’s anti-gay strategy)
link to theatlantic.com
Sorry, I posted this in the wrong thread before.