Lt Gary Ross of the US Navy decided to get married the moment DADT’s repeat went into effect, just after 12:00 AM today; he did it in Vermont at gay-friendly Moose Meadow Lodge. How fitting: Vermont was the first state to offer LGBTQ people civil unions (as well as being the home of Truth Wins Out). Congrats, Lt. Ross and Mr. Dan Swezy!
We’re all relieved that DADT has passed into history. Yet we can’t forget that LGBTQ soldiers still lack basic civil rights their straight buddies enjoy. According to the great state of Vermont, Swezy is Ross’s legal husband, but he is nonetheless ineligible for military health insurance. Incredibly, anal and oral sex are still court-martial offenses under Article 125 of the military legal code. Transgender people may not serve at all.
Read Nathaniel Frank’s thoughtful piece on DADT’s damage, its legacy and what its tenure says about the national psyche.
[h/t AMERICAblog Gay]
So now, according to Article 125, you can be openly gay, but if you ‘practice’ it and get caught some how, you can have a court martial?! I assume this is one of those rules that they generally don’t enforce, but it shouldn’t be on books anyway. Besides being utterly stupid, it’s obviously unconstitutional as well.
i don’t understand why anal and oral sex are offenses. Statistically there are more straight couples that engage in these acts than gays. It doesn’t seem like this would be only affecting gays.
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Let’s not forget that trans people are discharged under something else altogether, something that DADT never even covered, and neither did repeal. Trans people either serve in silence without transitioning or they get discharged the moment they even say the letter T.