‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ still weighs on veterans
Ten years after the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” former members of the military who were forced out of the service for being gay say they still face repercussions from the policy one lawmaker called “a dark chapter in the history of our nation’s military.”
On Wednesday, members of a House subcommittee heard testimony about the lingering effects. Some ex-service members suffer from debilitating depression and trauma disorders. Others struggle to find work, and many don’t have access to the benefits other veterans receive. Studies have found that 15 percent of LGBTQ veterans attempt suicide, compared with less than 1 percent for the entire veteran population.
Leaders at the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs have vowed to expand access and made a new push this week to encourage some veterans discharged under the policy to apply for benefits.
But the directive, which VA representatives called a “policy clarification,” doesn’t go far enough, advocates for LGBTQ veterans said. It doesn’t cover all veterans pushed out under “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and because it’s not enshrined in law, a different administration could choose to abandon it. This fall, LGBTQ veterans and their advocates are pursuing legislation and lawsuits to mitigate the damage done.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell” was in effect when Travis Jackson enlisted in 2004. Jackson was 19, and he’d known two things since he was young: He was bisexual, and he would spend his career in the Army, just as his father and grandfather had.
Jackson understood that the military required him to hide his identity, but over time, that secrecy led him into a deep depression. Two years after he joined, while he was stationed in Fort Sill, Okla., Jackson wrote a coming-out letter, then he took sleeping pills and vodka in an attempt to kill himself.
“This is the impact that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ had on a lot of veterans,” Jackson said. “I attempted suicide because I felt like no one cares for me, and there’s no way out.”
Still, when he completed his term of service, the Army gave him an honorable discharge, so he reenlisted and moved to Fort Lewis, Wash. A month after he arrived, in April 2007, his unit deployed to Iraq.
Jackson lost several friends there and began to fear he would die without any of his fellow soldiers knowing the truth of his life. He finally told a few people, most of whom he thought were accepting, but when they returned to Fort Lewis in the summer of 2008, his colleagues began harassing him. Jackson said he started drinking heavily.
In 2009, an Army investigator told him he’d made “same sex contacts” at a barracks party, and the incident eventually led the Army to discharge Jackson with an “under other than honorable” ranking.
Jackson has post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury, but for years after his service, he couldn’t get benefits. He eventually hired a lawyer, who spent eight years helping him upgrade his second discharge to “general.” Jackson now receives therapy through the VA in Montgomery, Ala.