Kansas Army Guard discharges gay soldier
Amy Brian found out this past November just what the military's "don't ask-don't tell" policy means.
No one in the military asked her if she was gay during her nine years in the Kansas Army National Guard. And she didn't tell anybody in the military she was gay.
"I'd never really tried to hide my homosexuality to the close people I worked with," she said. "And they didn't really seem to care or think any different of it."
But in August 2008, a Kansas Army National Guard lieutenant informed Brian she was being investigated for homosexual conduct after a female civilian co-worker at the U.S. Property and Fiscal Office said she had seen Brian kissing a woman in the checkout line at a Wal-Mart store.
From the moment the co-worker made her statement, Brian's performance record and the sacrifices she had made to serve her country in Iraq no longer mattered.
Brian is the first gay person to be "separated" - or discharged - from the Kansas Army National Guard based on the "don't ask-don't tell" policy.
She joins nearly 12,500 other lesbian, gay and bisexual service members who have been discharged by the Pentagon from 1994 through 2007.
Women are discharged at a rate disproportionate to their presence in the military, according to a report by the Washington-based Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending discrimination resulting from the "don't ask-don't tell" policy.
In 2003, 33 percent of all discharges based on homosexual conduct involved women, although females comprised 15 percent of the military personnel, the report said. The report, which contained the most recent available statistics, was based on data gathered from the government under the Freedom of Information Act.
"I was not separated because of any type of misconduct but plain and simply because someone else had a problem with my sexuality," Brian said.
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No one in the military asked her if she was gay during her nine years in the Kansas Army National Guard. And she didn't tell anybody in the military she was gay.
"I'd never really tried to hide my homosexuality to the close people I worked with," she said. "And they didn't really seem to care or think any different of it."
But in August 2008, a Kansas Army National Guard lieutenant informed Brian she was being investigated for homosexual conduct after a female civilian co-worker at the U.S. Property and Fiscal Office said she had seen Brian kissing a woman in the checkout line at a Wal-Mart store.
From the moment the co-worker made her statement, Brian's performance record and the sacrifices she had made to serve her country in Iraq no longer mattered.
Brian is the first gay person to be "separated" - or discharged - from the Kansas Army National Guard based on the "don't ask-don't tell" policy.
She joins nearly 12,500 other lesbian, gay and bisexual service members who have been discharged by the Pentagon from 1994 through 2007.
Women are discharged at a rate disproportionate to their presence in the military, according to a report by the Washington-based Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending discrimination resulting from the "don't ask-don't tell" policy.
In 2003, 33 percent of all discharges based on homosexual conduct involved women, although females comprised 15 percent of the military personnel, the report said. The report, which contained the most recent available statistics, was based on data gathered from the government under the Freedom of Information Act.
"I was not separated because of any type of misconduct but plain and simply because someone else had a problem with my sexuality," Brian said.
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