Skip to main content

Military vets, activists protest 'don't ask, don't tell'

  • Story Highlights
  • Under policy, service members face discharge if they reveal their homosexuality
  • Human Rights Campaign says 12,000 have been discharged under the policy
  • "Dont Ask Dont Tell" was signed under Bill Clinton's administration
  • Next Article in Politics »
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Military veterans and leaders of activist groups marked the fourteenth anniversary of the signing of the military's "don't ask don't tell" policy by demanding it be repealed.

Flags by the National Mall represent those discharged under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Under the policy, service members who reveal that they are homosexual face immediate discharge.

A former general and former Marine who says he was the first American wounded in the Iraq war were among about a dozen people protesting Friday at the National Mall.

The demonstrators believe gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military and called the rule discriminatory.

"This is a law that has affected not only many of us personally, but the nation as a whole profoundly," said Alexander Nicholson of Servicemembers United, a veteran advocacy group that seeks to repeal the law.

He and others were standing before thousands of small flags placed on the lawn of the National Mall. The flags represented the men and women discharged from the military in accordance with the policy, which was signed under President Bill Clinton's administration.

The Human Rights Campaign, which organized the Friday gathering, estimates the policy is responsible for the discharge of 12,000 men and women in the military.

"Don't ask, don't tell" has divided presidential candidates largely along party lines. The majority of Republicans favor keeping it, while several Democratic candidates have said they will work to end it.

Nicholson, who worked in military intelligence, said he was discharged from service shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks because "someone happened to find out that I'm gay."

Several speakers at the Friday protest described the law as insulting to gays and lesbians.

"It destroyed my sense of integrity," Rhonda Davis, a former petty officer in the Navy, said of having to conceal her sexual identity. Davis eventually came out to the military because she said she was tired of worrying that someone would find out she was gay.

She held up her federal discharge papers, on which she had highlighted the words "homosexual admission."

"This right here is the final slap of indignity," she said, pointing at the words.

Other speakers, including retired Army Maj. Gen. Dennis Laich said it would help the nation's military to repeal the law. He and 27 other retired high-ranking military leaders had signed a letter saying they supported pushing back the policy, he said.

Don't Miss

Speaking on behalf of the other retired military leaders, Laich said, "12,000 patriots ... had their military service cut short by a failed policy called 'don't ask, don't tell,' and were individually harmed by the very nation they had sworn to protect."

Laich said the leaders support the comments of retired Gen. John Shalikashvili, who was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs under Clinton when the law was passed.

At the time, Shalikashvili supported the policy, believing that openly gay servicemen and women would hurt military cohesion. But in a New York Times editorial in January of this year, Shalikashvili said he was convinced the United States could abandon the policy.

"I now believe that if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces," he wrote.

The Pentagon has said the policy is "working."

On Friday, Eric Alva, a former staff sergeant in the U.S. Marines, said "don't ask, don't tell" was the "only law in this country that forces people to be dishonest."

Alva left the military on a medical discharge when he lost his leg in a land mine explosion nearly five years ago in Iraq.

He was one of the first Americans -- perhaps the first -- to be wounded in Iraq, something he notes with pride.

"The first American wounded in the Iraq war was a gay Marine," he said Friday. "I have shed blood for my country on the sands of Iraq, and I have sacrificed for the rights and freedoms of the people of this country, not just some of them, all of them, no matter who they are." E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

CNN's Paul Courson contributed to this report

All About National Mall

  • E-mail
  • Save
  • Print