Reports about the military’s ongoing dismissal of gay Arabic linguists continue to show what can, and regularly does, happen to even mission-critical servicemembers who are caught up in the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. But an Associated Press story this week was noteworthy for its reporting of what did not happen to a just-discharged linguist.
A May 23rd story by Lolita Baldor tells the story of Stephen Benjamin, a 23-year old Navy petty officer who was found using a military computer system to send innocuous messages to his roommate. The messages suggested he was gay — he thinks he mentioned having a date — and as a result, he was discharged. In that sense, his story is similar to that of 57 other Arabic linguists whose careers have met a similar end.
What is more revealing about Benjamin’s story is that his entire unit knew he was gay, and yet he never experienced taunts or other problems with his fellow soldiers or superior officers. In fact, his supervisor tried to keep him on the job by urging him to sign a statement saying he was not gay. (He declined on the advice of his attorney, who was concerned that the false statement could be used against him later.)
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