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JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, September 29, 2006
Two gay college students discovered that the U.S. military’s doors are literally closed to them after trying to enlist at a District recruitment center this week.
Mandy Craig, a 24-year-old bisexual, and Alexandra Douglas-Barrera, an 18-year-old lesbian, attempted to enlist Sept. 26 in the U.S. Navy.
But the Naval recruiting office at 1099 14th St., NW was closed when Craig and Douglas-Barrera arrived, and calls to a posted telephone number went unanswered.
Adam Bink of the Right to Serve Campaign, which organized the enlistment attempt as part of a nationwide protest, said he wasn’t surprised.
“They knew we were coming,” he said as he stood outside the locked office. “They’ve shut their doors to two young Americans who want to serve their country.”
U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Reed, whose nearby recruiting office was open at the time, said the Navy office was closed because its staff members were off-site administering a test to new recruits.
The snag didn’t deter the protesters. Craig, Douglas-Barrera and 14 other students from American University, the University of Maryland and other local colleges sat in the recruitment station’s lobby for four hours.
Two more protesters distributed fliers to people outside the station. The fliers implore Congress to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the 1993 policy that bans openly gay people from serving in the military.
Douglas-Barrera, a former Washington Blade editorial intern, said it was appropriate that the protest occurred at a recruiting station blocks from Capitol Hill.
“What better place to do this?” she said. “It is Congress’ responsibility to overturn this.”
‘Motivated by patriotism’
The protest was part of a national campaign to overturn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Started this summer by Soulforce, a gay religious advocacy group, the Right to Serve Campaign has sought to enlist 23 openly gay adults at 11 recruitment stations across the country.
Organizers say all such potential enlistees “are motivated by patriotism, family tradition, ambition and a sense of duty.”
Although the Sept. 26 enlistment attempt and protest occurred without incident, similar events elsewhere have led to arrests of gay supporters.
Police took three people into custody Sept. 12 in Shreveport, La., after they refused to leave a U.S. Marine Corps recruiting office. The three were among nine who tried to enlist that day.
In a statement released earlier this year, the Department of Defense defended “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as fair, and noted the policy is federal law.
“It’s not just a DoD policy,” said Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a department spokesperson. “For it to be changed, there must be a change to the law.”
At a news conference Sept. 26 outside the recruitment center, Bink called on Congress to change a law he said has cost the nation more than 52,000 service members.
“Is this policy a good one for our military?” he said. “Is this a good policy to have in wartime?”
Bink encouraged people to support the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would overturn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
“This policy is hurting the military, this policy is hurting the country, and it’s wrong,” he said. “It’s just plain wrong.”
Craig said the recruitment center protests are drawing new attention to the military’s discriminatory policies, and that attention is spurring new conversations.
“Those conversations spark other conversations,” she said, “and that creates change.”
Iraq veteran backs protest
Among those who supported the protest was Craig’s partner, a former Navy sailor.
Chance Thomas, a 26-year-old lesbian, served more than five years in Iraq, Afghanistan and Cuba before being honorably discharged in December 2005.
Thomas said she served openly without a problem and that her commander knew she was a lesbian. She left the Navy due to injury.
“Their only argument to keep ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is to maintain unit cohesion,” she said. “I proved that wrong for five and a half years.”
Will Cobb, an independent candidate for D.C. City Council from Ward 6 and former member of the U.S. Coast Guard, also supported the protest.
“We’re supposed to be the most ardent defender in the world of freedom and liberty,” he said. “We can’t be concerning ourselves with people’s sexual orientation. We should be focused on whether or not they’re qualified to defend this country — period.”
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a Washington group that seeks to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” said in a prepared statement that the protests are helpful.
“The Right to Serve Campaign challenges the federal government to end its prohibition on open and honest service by gay Americans,” it says, “at a time when America can ill afford to turn away even one bright, capable recruit in the fights against terrorism.”
Douglas-Barrera said she and other protesters appreciated the support as they work to overturn “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
“I think it’s important because people in the military are giving up their lives to serve the country,” she said. “If they’re doing that, they should at least be afforded the ability to be true to who they are.”
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