Approximately forty House Representatives are urging the Pentagon to reconsider its ban on gay Arabic linguists. Spearheaded by Representative Marty Meehan - the Massachusetts politico who regularly fights "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" - the collective asks the Pentagon to justify booting 58 gay Arabic linguists.

Speaking on his own behalf, Meehan pondered:

At a time when our military is stretched to the limit and our cultural knowledge of the Middle East is dangerously deficient, I just can't believe that kicking out able, competent Arabic linguists is making our country any safer.

The outcry comes after government officials fired three more gay linguists, including Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Stephen Benjamin...

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You gotta give the Pentagon credit. They used to think that those of the homo variety were mentally deranged. Then faggotry got listed along with mental retardation and personality disorder. Obviously people weren't pleased, so the Pentagon bent to public pressure (why can't they do the same in Iraq?) and again changed their stance on cocksuckers. Now, under a list of discharge guidelines, homosexuality has been listed nebulously as a "circumstance". The International Herald Tribune reports:

Defense Department guidelines that classified homosexuality as a mental disorder have been changed and now put it among a list of conditions or "circumstances" that range from bed-wetting to fear of flying.
...
The Pentagon guidelines outline retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities. And it includes sections at the end that describe other specific conditions, circumstances and defects that also could lead to retirement but are not physical disabilities.

Among the conditions are stammering or stuttering, dyslexia, sleepwalking, motion sickness, obesity, insect venom allergies and homosexuality.

All that money and so-called research and the best the Pentagon can do is equate homosexuality with dyslexia? That's bullshit. We don't even get attention deficit disorder? We get dyslexia! Ain't nothing glamorous about dyslexia. At least give us spontaneous blindess, ya bastards.

After last week's scandal over a Pentagon 1996 document classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder, the Department of Defense has reassessed its position — and is updating its paperwork. Lt. Colonel Jeremy Mertan from the Office of the Secretary of Defense's public affairs office told PageOneQ:

The directive has been reviewed, homosexuality should not have been characterized as a mental disorder in an appendix of a procedural instruction. A clarification will be issued over the next few days. Notwithstanding its inclusion, we find no practical impact since that appendix simply listed factors that do NOT constitute a physical disability, and homosexuality of course does not.

None of this, of course, changes the way gays in the military are treated when it comes to being public with their sexuality. So, as long as you kept your orientation a secret anyway, it'd be hard to discharge you for a mental disorder. Such progress!

Pentagon reverses on listing of homosexuality as mental illness [PageOneQ]
Earlier: Pentagon Calls Homosexuality A 'Mental Disorder'

• It the scandal over the heavily contested Pentagon document overblown? [Law Dork]

• Tonight at the WYSIWYG Talent Show (which two of your editors have performed at) in New York: Way Gay: Even Gayer Gayness, featuring some of our favorite gay bloggers including Manhattan Offender and Joe. My. God. [WYSIWYG]

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• When not in Hawaii shooting Lost, Matthew Fox enjoys skinny dipping at night. With friends. [Out via Queer Beacon]

In the U.S. Armed Forces, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is just the beginning. A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a "mental disorder" alongside mental retardation and personality disorders in one section and goes so far as to list reitrement procedures for gay men and women serving. (Unfortunately, no published report we could find explains what the document is, when it was drafted, or how it was released. The document is a Department of Defense Instruction and was signed by the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness in 1996 and re-certified as "current" in 2003, says CSSMM.)

Pentagon officials have quickly jumped on the defense, claiming the document is now "under review." Some lawmakers, meanwhile, have already sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asking "for a full review of all documents and policies to ensure they reflect that same standard."

Back in 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. (For such a progressive organization, keep it mind the APA was run by mostly straight white men.) Perhaps one day, the U.S. government will do the same. Officially.

Update: View the documents here.

Pentagon Lists Homosexuality As Disorder [AP]