What do you think?

[Ray Evans Harrell]

Emory Wheel, November 12, 2002 Emory University, Atlanta, GA (E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ) ( http://www.emorywheel.com ) http://www.emorywheel.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/11/12/3dd09b245995d Emory alum booted from U.S. Army for homosexuality By Jennifer Peresie, Senior Staff Writer        Alastair Gamble ('00C) said he found out firsthand this year that the military's desire to promote national security interests is secondary to enforcing its ban on homosexuality.        Gamble might know.  In August he was fired, along with six other Arabic linguists, for being gay.        Gamble, a former Wheel editor, said he was discharged from the U.S. Army's Defense Language Institute in Monterrey, Calif., because of a policy that bans gays in the military.        The firings come at a time when the military is gearing up for a likely war in the Middle East and faces a severe shortage of Arabic speakers at the DLI, its premier language training school.        This is more than a gay rights issue, according to Gamble.        "The tragedy was not that a gay man was discriminated against, because that happens every day," he said.  "There's no reason I'm more important than any other homosexual that didn't get a job or accepted into a social club.  The tragedy is the military is less equipped to fight a viable and live threat in the Middle East."        Military officials would not comment on Gamble's discharge.  Harvey Perritt, a spokesman for U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, told the New Republic the firings were normal enforcement of Army policy.  Perritt was unreachable despite repeated phone calls for this story.        Experts said human intelligence and language skills are key in preventing future attacks.  Don Hamilton, deputy director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, said the United States has a "dire need" for more Arabic linguists.        "Before [Sept. 11], documents sat around for weeks that did not get translated," Hamilton said.  "This is a serious problem, and because Arabic is such a difficult language, it's a hard problem to solve."        Gamble said he was fired after completing more than 30 weeks of Arabic study, only a few months from being certified as fluent.  He was a human intelligence collector, a position the Congressional General Accounting Office's January report cited as one of the military's greatest foreign language needs.        He was also a student leader in his company, having received a commendation from his commander in the Foreign Area Officer program, which trains officers to work with foreign officials.        In April, he was finishing his second semester of Arabic study when a checker, doing a normal round of surprise inspections, found Gamble asleep in his bed with his boyfriend, also a language specialist.  The inspectors searched the room and found photographs showing affectionate behavior between the two soldiers and cards expressing romantic feelings.        Gamble was honorably discharged in August.  Two months later, his boyfriend was also discharged.        "I think there's an incredible irony here, because the entire rationale for the gay ban is that lifting it would compromise national security," said Aaron Belkin, director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.        Gamble said the military's anti-gay policies are unfair and impractical.  He said the military is giving into people's prejudices.        "It shouldn't be, 'Do we like him?'" he said.  "It's 'We have 16 jobs to do in this company, and is this person qualified and able to do it?'"        Gamble likened the military's ban on homosexuals to racial segregation in the 1940s and 1950s, when military officials argued that racial integration would threaten moral cohesion and white soldiers would be uncomfortable serving with blacks.  He said whether a soldier can perform his duties is much more important than whether others agree with his lifestyle.        He also said the military's policies force homosexuals to lie.        Twenty-three countries, including Great Britain, Canada and Israel, have lifted bans on gays in the military, Belkin said.        "Not a single one has listed decrease in morale, cohesion or any component of national security," Belkin said.        Dixon Osburn, executive director of the Service Member Legal Defense Network, said the ban forces the Pentagon to fire people it needs to defend the country.        "It not only hurts national security but hurts individuals that are serving their country," Osburn said.        Gamble plans to continue working with advocacy groups, but not in a "poster-boy role."        "I'm just one of millions of gays being discriminated against," he said.