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Jene Newsome should still be in the military today. The fact that this nine-year Air Force veteran was kicked out can be traced to two reasons: the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that sweeps up service members - even when they follow the rules - and a South Dakota police department that's now fending off claims that it was motivated by spite rather than the law.
Cases such as Newsome's give even more urgency to a review of the 1993 Clinton-era policy, a sad compromise that forces people to pretend to be something they're not, and to lie about it in the bargain.
Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called for an internal study of the policy, which has led to the dismissal of more than 13,500 service members, according to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
Newsome, 28, is a lesbian. To adhere to the military's policy, the one-time aircraft armament system craftsman didn't reveal her sexual orientation to the Air Force. In October, she married Cheryl Hutson in Iowa, where gay marriage is legal. Again, she didn't tell the Air Force.
In November, Rapid City, S.D., police officers came to Newsome's house searching for her partner, who was wanted on a warrant for theft charges in Fairbanks, Alaska. Newsome was at work at the nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base. When contacted, she refused to come home immediately and help police find Hutson.
Police say they later noticed, through the window of Newsome's home, a marriage certificate on the kitchen table. The certificate, bearing the couple's names, was about 2-1/2 feet from an officer. A few hours later, Hutson came outside and was arrested.
Several days later, police contacted the base, in effect "outing" Newsome as gay. Police Chief Steve Allender said the information on the license was relevant to the probe because it revealed the women's relationship and residency.
"I disagree with the notion that our department might be expected to ignore the license, or not document the license, or withhold it from the Air Force once we did know about it," Allender told The Associated Press. He also said Newsome could have faced charges for being an accessory to a crime.
The department routinely shares information with the base about arrests of Air Force members. But Newsome wasn't the object of the warrant. She wasn't arrested. A detective who is an Air Force veteran forwarded the police report to the base, knowing full well the consequences.
Since then, the ACLU has worked on Newsome's behalf to seek $800,000 from Rapid City to compensate her for financial losses following her honorable discharge. "I'm very proud of my career and what I did," she told the Rapid City Journal.
Newsome should be. But unless the armed forces change the policy on gays, more people like her will be forced to live a lie forced on them by the military. And even that may not be enough to protect them.
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Flawed logic
This editorial is way off base in calling for the repeal of DADT. Too much flawed logic which amounts to throwing the baby out with the bath water.
If the policeman was wrong, fire him.
His actions have nothing to do with repealing DADT. The woman should have never gotten married to someone of the same gender WHILE SHE WAS IN THE MILITARY. She was fully aware of the consequences and thought she would beat the system.
She didnt and now she has to suffer the consequences. I dont feel sorry for her at all no more than I would someone who goes into a bank to steal, gets caught and is sent to jail.
She has no one to blame but herself and her partner who should have kept her personal affairs in line so that she would have never attracted the attention of the police.
And just a curious question. Who in their right mind has their marriage license laying on the kitchen table? Sounds kinda cheap and fishy to me.
hmm
she voluntarily joins the military, where she knows there is a policy of don't ask don't tell, and then when the lie is found out it is everyone else's fault except the liar
interesting
don't tell
Isn't the point of the policy that you're supposed to lie about it? It's really twisted to be so intolerant, but still, she did what she was supposed to do and is being punished for it. It's like a light skinned black person claiming they were white back in the day so as to not be lynched and then blaming them for their own lynching once the crazy racists found out. There is no excuse for blatant intolerance.
I'll tell you what freaks me out is all these horny male military officers raping the young women. It really proves that there is nothing dangerous about gays, who usually respect that those around them are not (I've known lots of gays and I've never been hit on by them ever). What isn't safe is a whole bunch of straight men who have a couple of unattractive women (no offense to women in the military, but...) who are the only females they see, and after awhile, they start to eye those women lustfully, until one day, they finally take advantage of their higher rank and get them alone and take advantage of them.
That's real. It happened all the time, and luckily, unlike the Vatican sex scandal, the people on the top have taken it very seriously.
As a right wing nut job...
As a right wing nut job, tea bagger, pitch forker, Army veteran, etc.. I think its time to junk "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". The police were wrong to "out" the airman/airperson/airwoman. It was a pretty crappy thing to do and it was spiteful. While I'm not wholly on board with the gay marriage thing or the military providing benefits to gay spouses, I do not see where either puts our military or country at risk. If God deems homosexuality a sin, then they are accountable to him, not me, the government, or the military. To me, the shift of our government toward socialism and the diminishing of the 10th Amendment concerns me much more.
People should quit worrying so much about Pres. Obama
and his so called socialist agenda which actually trys to help people and better the nation and worry more about Fascist cops snooping into a woman's private sexual orientation.
With Pres. Obama, someone might be forced to have health care. Oh the horror!
With these right wing nut jobs, a person may lose their job, just because of their sexual orientation.