US gay serviceman reinstated following Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell discharge
A gay linguist who was discharged from the US Navy under the now-repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) ban on openly gay men and women from serving in the armed forces has been reinstated, his attorneys have announced.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Jase Daniels, 29, was discharged in 2007 after he appeared in an article about gays in the military within the Stars and Stripes military news publication.
Mr Daniels, a Hebrew linguist was sworn back into the armed forces yesterday. He served a year in Kuwait before being discharged. He is due to study Farsi at the Defense Language Institute.
Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said the reinstatement of Daniels “underscores that all qualified and needed service members are now officially welcomed back into the ranks.”
The serviceman was one of three individuals who led a ground breaking case against the US armed forces in 2010 challenging the legality of the DADT policy.
Daniels was one of three plaintiffs in a 2010 case challenging the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
