Takepart.com – Fri, Jul 20, 2012
The Los Angeles Times and a number of other media outlets reported yesterday that, “Gay military personnel can wear their uniforms in San Diego’s LGBT Pride Festival and parade.”
The parade, which will take place this Saturday is San Diego’s first gay pride event since the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell" rule and, “The decision marks the first time that gay personnel will be permitted to wear their uniforms in a gay parade.”
The Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense said the service members need to make sure they “participate in their personal capacity and ensure the adherence to military service standards of appearance and wear of the military uniform.”
If that doesn’t sound like a big step for gaykind, it should.
It was only a year-and-half ago that the Senate struck down the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military and The New York Times quoted President Obama saying, “As commander in chief, I am also absolutely convinced that making this change will only underscore the professionalism of our troops as the best led and best trained fighting force the world has ever known.”
Less than a year later, in October 2011, CBS News reported, “The nation’s only professional group for active-duty gay military personnel is holding its first conference in Las Vegas this weekend, an event only made possible by the recent lifting of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell' policy that prohibited gay and lesbian troops from serving openly in the armed forces.”
“The OutServe Leadership Summit is designed to highlight the diversity of gays in the military and the challenges they face, and marks the largest gathering of gay troops in one location since the ban was lifted last month. OutServe is a formerly clandestine network of gay and lesbian service members that lobbied the Pentagon to support repealing ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ ”
Note the key word: “Clandestine.”
Yet, just last month, CBS News said that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta thanked gay and lesbian military members for their service, as the Pentagon prepares to mark June as gay pride month with an official salute. In a remarkable sign of a cultural change in the U.S. military, Panetta said “Now you can be proud of serving your country, and be proud of who you are.”
Amid all this celebration, I thought of Petty Officer Third Class Allen R. Schindler. In case you don’t know his story, here are the brief and shocking details.
In 1992, Schindler, a radioman, was being processed for an administrative discharge because he was being harassed by fellow crew members and had acknowledged that he was a homosexual. But before his paperwork was processed, he was murdered by two of his shipmates.
The Los Angeles Times reported at that time that, “Schindler’s mother, Dorothy Hajdys, said in an interview that her son was beaten beyond recognition. Hajdys and her daughter, Kathy Eickoff, said they were able to identify him only through tattoos on his forearms . . . all but two of Schindler’s ribs were broken, and both lungs and his brain had hemorrhaged. She also said that Schindler’s penis was lacerated in the attack. The autopsy report listed the cause of death as ‘multiple blunt force injuries from head to trunk.’ ”
I remember reading this story and crying. And it still brings tears to my eyes. I also remember the incredible sense of sadness and hopelessness I felt as I stood with hundreds of others at a memorial for Allen that was held after this horrific crime.
I won’t be in San Diego this weekend. But, Allen, I’ll be thinking of you and marching in spirit right alongside you.
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I was serving in the Navy in 1992 and I remember hearing about the attack and murder of Allen Schindler. I recall how it struck fear and terror in my heart and led me further down a dark and lonely path of lying to myself and everyone else I knew in a desperate attempt to deny the truth of my own heart...
And so, as I've always known, the price of freedom is not free, it is purchased with blood... The blood of innocents like Allen Schindler and many others who came both before and after him. I'll take pride in watching our GLBT servicemen and women march today knowing that those who paid the ultimate price and gave the ultimate sacrifice, didn't do so in vain, their's was part of the price that made us all a little more free today and someday soon will make us a people free - equal in the eyes of the law and our fellow citizens throughout the land.
"Non sibi sed patriae"
(Not for self but for country)
"Fear Eats the Soul"
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