The Palm Center has just released new data showing that the military continues to discharge “mission-critical specialists” just because they’re gay:
The data show that gay discharges included 8 linguists, 20 infantrymen, 16 medical aides, 7 combat engineers, 6 missile artillery operating crew members, and one member of the Special Forces, among others. [...]
The data confirm a long-term trend, and a 2005 Government Accountability Report found that the military fired 757 mission-critical specialists, including 322 linguists, in the first decade of don’t ask, don’t tell.
Interestingly, the group also found “disproportionate discharges on the basis of race and gender. “In the Navy, two officers were discharged in FY 2009 and both were Asian. In the Army, of the five Officers discharged, two were African American, one was Asian and two were white.” Women were also discharged at a disproportionately higher rate than men.
Since 1994, the military has discharged 13,500 soldiers under DADT, at a cost to the taxpayer of more than $363.8 million. The Senate is expected to take up the Defense Authorization bill and the amendment that would begin the process of repealing DADT after it comes back from its August recess.
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