don't tell hell

Will Air Force Lt. Robin Chaurasiya Finally Get the DADT Dismissal She’s Been Wanting?

After initially refusing to oust Lt. Robin Chaurasiya after she came out to her commanding officers, the Air Force will, in fact, move ahead with a Don’t Ask Don’t Tell dismissal.

It was the most bizarre expression of DADT we’ve seen: Military branches regularly kick out known gay soldiers, but because Chaurasiya made her sexuality known and wanted to leave service (because, she said, she couldn’t serve in the military that refused to serve her), she was denied an exit after Lt. Gen. Robert R. Allardice, Chaurasiya’s commander at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois concluded she was faking her gayness (and her civil union) just to get out.

Except on Monday, the Air Force reversed its decision after Gen. Raymond E. Johns Jr., described as a “more senior officer,” looked into the case and recommended a discharge. Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley, who has said it’s time to repeal DADT, has the final say.

And that’s the sickest part of all this: As we’re seeing, gay soldiers can get out of military service just by declaring their sexuality, which is something no soldier, arguably, should be able to do. (They enlist, and it’s a binding contract.) So now gays have, in one sense, a special privilege all their own. Unless you see gay soldiers’ inability to serve their country proudly and openly as the privilege — or rather the right — so many desperately prefer.

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