| A hearty welcome again to Tanya Domi, a former Captain in the U.S. Army, who served for 15 years, enlisting as a Private, rising to the rank of Captain before leaving the service honorably. Her latest guest post for the Blend takes on the foot-dragging by the Obama admin on DADT and discusses one of the historic tangible benefits of service to this country that traditionally have brought many to sign on -- citizenship.
 When will LGBT people be free?
By Tanya L. Domi, former U.S. Army Captain One of my favorite New Yorker cartoons that hangs on the wall of my study is a cartoon drawing of President Lincoln--the iconic image of him standing outside a command tent during the Civil War speaking to General Ulysses S. Grant saying: “Should I free the gays too?” This cartoon amuses me while it simultaneously angers and saddens me too. In the early days after Barack Obama was elected president, the media engorged itself in writing endlessly about the historical comparisons of Presidents Lincoln and Obama—book ending Lincoln’s emancipation of the slaves with the election of Obama as our first black president. But in the comparison of the emancipation of the slaves to “freeing the gays,” which is amusingly depicted in a New Yorker cartoon, looks less likely to happen with every passing day, whatever promises Obama has proffered. Obama does not demonstrate a desire to ‘free’ gay and lesbian soldiers to serve openly, despite America’s two wars, in spite of his authority to enact a stop loss policy urged by a significant block of Congressional members and advocacy groups; despite study after study since 1959 that reflects gay soldiers do serve admirably, quietly, and sometimes openly while avoiding investigations at every turn when fear consumes them in protecting the very essence of individual privacy. Today, America’s military engagements appear to be going south in Iraq and Afghanistan as recent violent up ticks have occurred in both locations. Despite an increasing tragic loss of American lives, gay and lesbian soldiers continue to be discharged at the rate of about two per day, according to the Service Members Legal Defense Network. The Pentagon twiddles its thumbs on the question of opening gay soldiers serving, while pushing back against Obama’s expressed desire to include them in the ranks. Nonetheless, while the joint chiefs continue to throw out perfectly good soldiers for being gay, they have also called for a dramatic increase of soldiers to be deployed to Afghanistan. Their actions simply defy logic and undermine national security. The military’s decision-making worries me about our ability to win in Afghanistan in general, but I digress. All of these facts were put into stark relief for me when Vice-President Joe Biden traveled to Iraq over the July 4th holiday to visit with soldiers and to preside over a naturalization ceremony in Baghdad of 237 soldiers. Many foreign nationals who enlist in the military today are being offered a fast-track path incentive to U.S. citizenship for serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. Domi continues below the fold. |
Good for these newest citizens, who have put their lives on the line and in exchange they become citizens of the United States of America. I do not begrudge them because I know how special it is to be an American, having lived abroad and witnessed so many horrors around the world.But in my awareness about the ceremony and its obvious importance, enough to include the Vice President and the U.S. commanding general presiding, I recognized that as lesbian and gay Americans we are less equal than our newest fellow citizens sworn in on July 4th, the day our country honors its independence. It has been a time honored tradition in the U.S. to enter the military, gain greater responsibilities and self-respect, as well as tangible benefits for that service, including freedom from slavery and in many cases citizenship.During the Revolutionary War, both enslaved and free blacks fought the British for America’s independence. Nearly 20 percent were freed for their service, but many remained enslaved for decades to come. During the Civil War, freed and enslaved blacks unofficially enlisted in the Union Army, including 94,000 Southern slaves who fled to the North.After Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation was issued on Jan. 1, 1893, allowing blacks to officially serve, although the Supreme Court Dred Scott decision--the legal basis for separate but equal, was the law and practice of the land, until at least half way through the 20th century. Later on, “Buffalo” soldiers (named by American Indians who believed they resembled buffalo with their dark skin and curly black hair), black soldiers who served in the cavalry during the Indian wars in the West were granted citizenship upon entry into the military. As many Americans know, the Tuskegee Airmen served during World War II in a segregated Air Force aviation unit, serving with distinction and bravery. And yet, the North and South remained segregated to its black citizens and soldiers, despite their bravery or valor. However, President Harry Truman possessed the courage and political will to racially desegregate the military in 1948. It took many years, well into the 1960s for all military units to be desegregated. All the while, foreign nationals were awarded citizenship for service in the military—thousands of Filipinos have served gaining U.S. citizenship via military service, for example. Today, the military boasts of its advances for racial equality in the U.S. and rightfully so. But when will gays and lesbians be included in America’s tradition of promoting the contributions of its newest citizens and the military’s official embrace of America’s unique diversity? I posit that until the day we can openly serve in uniform, we will always be considered less than other Americans who are allowed to serve and enjoy the fruits of honor earned.Until the political and legal construction of negatively defined gay sexuality in the military is eliminated by public policy, all gays and lesbians will be viewed as ‘less’ than our fellow citizens and also sexually deviant (despite Lawrence v. Texas). So you may not support the current wars, you may even be a pacifist and this issue may not be important to you--but know and understand how our political history is constructed to advance the citizenship of those who serve. As long as we are held outside of this tradition, prohibited from accepting the responsibilities and enjoying its benefits of military service, we will also be kept away from the center of our society.Thus, without the right to serve, whether we do or not, we are unable to fully exercise what the founders wrote in the Declaration of Independence:“…they are endowed by their creator to certain inalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…” In its essence, the Declaration explains that Americans desire to be free women and men and will organize a government to affect this outcomer. To be free from tyranny is America’s founding and central principle that soldiers fought and died for 233 years ago.There is a timeless quality to freedom, without boundaries or differences, people all across this globe yearn to be free.We as gay Americans deeply embrace this principle and declare it’s our turn now.
Tanya Domi is a former U.S. Army Captain and served 15 years, enlisting as a Private before leaving the Army honorably as a Captain in 1990. Domi teaches human rights at Columbia University as an adjunct professor of international and public affairs and lives in the City of New York. |
