Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy and Rape Cases

[conlor]

Rape case spotlights Pentagon policy



EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - As investigators pursued an Air Force officer they suspected of drugging and raping other servicemen, the military‘s "don‘t ask, don‘t tell" policy hung over their case.

Among other things:

• Military investigators had to step around the law, telling servicemen they interviewed that their job wasn‘t to uncover consensual gay activity but that their answers would be reported to their commanders.

"When this law was sold to the public, it was said it would protect the privacy of service members, but it has instead put them in difficult positions where they have to choose between their careers and their own safety," said Steve Ralls, a spokesman for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which represents military members discharged for being openly gay.

"Male-on-male rape in general is an underreported crime. The level of sensitivity and professionalism in the military was so great that these men were able to come forward. This is not only a unique case in the face of the military, it is a unique case on the face of the Earth," she said.

Under the law, military investigators cannot question service members about their sexual orientation, but gays can be discharged if they talk about it.

"These people were victims of a predator who was able to be more effective in his predatory techniques because of a federal law," Ralls said.

Six victims, including four military men, two of them married, testified at the court-martial that they had felt drugged after drinking with Taylor at bars. They said he then took them to hotel rooms or his apartment and raped them.

Taylor‘s defense was that the sex was consensual. His attorney, Martin Regan, argued before the jury of nine Air Force officers that "don‘t ask, don‘t tell" gave Taylor‘s military accusers an incentive to say they were drugged and raped rather than admit consensual gay sex.

Taylor, the former chief of patient administration at Eglin Regional Hospital, testified at his court-martial that he feared authorities were on "a gay roundup" and that he lied about his activities because he was trying to protect his career and those of his gay friends.

"To defend yourself against criminal allegations, you then have to say I am going to give up my job, walk away from something I love doing, something I‘ve been recognized as one of the best at the base for doing," Regan said.

One longtime Air Force security officer was forced into early retirement because he told the military investigators that he had consensual sex with Taylor. Investigators tracked the man down while looking into Taylor‘s past relationships.

Another airman, whom Taylor was convicted of raping, left the military after investigators interviewed him. He testified that he was gay and had traveled and shared hotel rooms with Taylor.
But Reder, the prosecutor, said "investigators went to great pains to do their job and respect the privacy of others."

Chandler News-Dispatch

[Snowden]

A stupid law with results that should have been would happen. Again, this was political correctness being applied. I believe this being politically correct will be the ruination of us all.

[Woodmonkey]

Originally Posted by Snowden

A stupid law with results that should have been would happen. Again, this was political correctness being applied. I believe this being politically correct will be the ruination of us all.

It's not PC, Marianne, but the result of Clinton's foiled attempt to force openly practicing gays on the military when he first became President. He tried to do it through executive order, but there was fierce opposition (Colin Powell resigned about that time) and he settled for this policy.

The military is now stuck with it and has to work around it.

Why didn't Bush change that?