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defrogITEM [via various]: Sergeant Jene Newsome is kicked out of the Air Force for being a lesbian ... after being outed by the Rapid City, South Dakota police.
Uh huh.
I can’t prove it, of course, but I would lay the good money down on the “retaliation” theory. Call me a cynical old bastard, but I don’t believe for a second the cops ratted her out because of a simple sense of duty.
Anyway, the story highlights one of the basic weaknesses of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell – and how basically gays and lesbians can’t win as long as they’re treated as second-class citizens. Even if you can play by the rules, The Straight Authorities (or a vindictive neighbor or a jilted lover or whoever) can still use the rules to fuck you over when it suits them.
But then this isn’t news. DADT was always a dumb idea. All it ever did was create a way for homophobes in the military to maintain the illusion that they weren’t already serving with teh gayz. Put another way, DADT made all the alleged "problems" of gays serving with straights magically go away by letting everyone pretend there were no gays in the military.
How psychotic can you get? I ask you.
Tell me everything,
This is dF
The Rapid City Police Department says Newsome, an aircraft armament system craftsman who spent nine years in the Air Force, was not cooperative when they showed up at her home in November with an arrest warrant for her partner, who was wanted on theft charges in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Newsome was at work at the base at the time and refused to immediately come home and assist the officers in finding her partner, whom she married in Iowa - where gay marriage is legal - in October.
Police officers, who said they spotted the marriage license on the kitchen table through a window of Newsome's home, alerted the base, police Chief Steve Allender said in a statement sent to the AP. The license was relevant to the investigation because it showed both the relationship and residency of the two women, he said.
"It's an emotional issue and it's unfortunate that Newsome lost her job, but 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 said Saturday. "It was a part of the case, part of the report and the Air Force was privileged to the information."
Newsome was at work at the base at the time and refused to immediately come home and assist the officers in finding her partner, whom she married in Iowa - where gay marriage is legal - in October.
Police officers, who said they spotted the marriage license on the kitchen table through a window of Newsome's home, alerted the base, police Chief Steve Allender said in a statement sent to the AP. The license was relevant to the investigation because it showed both the relationship and residency of the two women, he said.
"It's an emotional issue and it's unfortunate that Newsome lost her job, but 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 said Saturday. "It was a part of the case, part of the report and the Air Force was privileged to the information."
Uh huh.
I can’t prove it, of course, but I would lay the good money down on the “retaliation” theory. Call me a cynical old bastard, but I don’t believe for a second the cops ratted her out because of a simple sense of duty.
Anyway, the story highlights one of the basic weaknesses of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell – and how basically gays and lesbians can’t win as long as they’re treated as second-class citizens. Even if you can play by the rules, The Straight Authorities (or a vindictive neighbor or a jilted lover or whoever) can still use the rules to fuck you over when it suits them.
But then this isn’t news. DADT was always a dumb idea. All it ever did was create a way for homophobes in the military to maintain the illusion that they weren’t already serving with teh gayz. Put another way, DADT made all the alleged "problems" of gays serving with straights magically go away by letting everyone pretend there were no gays in the military.
How psychotic can you get? I ask you.
Tell me everything,
This is dF
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no subject
on 2010-03-14 07:15 pm (UTC)