Women, Lesbians, and Don't Ask Don't Tell

A new article on MSNBC posits that Lesbians, or women presumed to be lesbians, are more likely to be kicked out of the military under DADT:

"Women are far more likely than men to be kicked out of the military under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy against gays in uniform, according to government figures released Thursday that critics said reflect deep-seated sexism in the armed forces.

Women accounted for 15 percent of all active-duty and reserve members of the military but more than one-third of the 619 people discharged last year because of their sexual orientation.

The disparity was particularly striking in the Air Force, where women represented 20 percent of all personnel but 61 percent of those expelled."

This does not surprise me. The military and issues of military service have been discriminatory toward women in general for as long as women have expressed interest in serving. Not only through policies prohibiting and policing women on the frontlines, but also through high rates of harassment and assault on women who are enlisted. The article sites two of my immediate thoughts as to this particular situation with DADT - that this could be a result of lesbians being a large percentage of enlisted women, or that it stems from straight men in the military seeking payback or retribution for women (lesbian or straight) who refuse their sexual advances:

"Nathaniel Frank, a researcher at the Palm Center, a University of California, Santa Barbara, center specializing in gays and the military, said one partial explanation is that homosexuality is more common among women in the service than among their male comrades."

"But Frank and some women who served in the military said the gap could also be a result of "lesbian-baiting" rumors and investigations that arise when women rebuff sexual overtures from male colleagues or do not meet traditional notions of feminine beauty.

"Often times the lesbians under my command were under scrutiny by the same men who were also sexually harassing straight women, so it was this kind of sexist undercurrent of 'You don't belong here,'" said Anuradha Bhagwati, a former Marine who founded the Service Women's Action Network, an advocacy group."

I think it is possible that the percentage of gay women in the military is proportionally higher than the percentage of gay men, but I've never seen any statistical or sociological explanation for that idea and there is no denying that lesbians come in all sizes, personalities, colors and ambitions. I also think that DADT offers those in the military, which is an historically male-dominated establishment, an additional easy-out to deny women entry and acceptance into their 'boys club.'

The military isn't an anomaly in having this attitude - most institutions established and dominated by men exhibit these behaviors and the women in them face the same battles over and over again as they work to gain equal participation. Take for example, the US Congress - Is it not ironic that the 111th Congress, both the House of Representatives and the Senate have proportionally similarly percentages of women (17.7% in the House and 17% in the Senate, compared to this study's 20% in the military)? And can we expect women's issues in the military to be a priority when we have not yet had a female Commander in Chief or Defense Secretary?

The most fascinating thing about articles like this that pop up sporadically on major news sites is that despite the clear insight into the intersection of discrimination based on sex, gender, and sexual orientation people seem either surprised and baffled by this kind of information or generally apathetic. It demonstrates that acceptance of one sort of discriminatory behavior only invites more discrimination, and apathy toward one sort of discriminatory behavior only invites apathy toward other discrimination.