Crusader’s dire warnings about gays in US military backfire on … Irish Times, Ireland

Posted on August 3, 2008
Filed Under Gay News Blog

Tales of predatory lesbian soldiers fail to sway US politicians, writes Dana Milbank in Washington.

DON’T ASK, don’t tell. And, whatever you do, don’t ask Elaine Donnelly to tell you what she thinks about gays in the military.

The US House of Representatives’ Armed Services personnel subcommittee made just such a miscalculation on Wednesday. Holding the first hearing in 15 years on the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, lawmakers invited a quartet of veterans to testify on the subject and extended an invitation to Donnelly, who has been working for years to protect US fighting forces from the malign influence of women.

She warned of “transgenders in the military.” She warned that lesbians would take pictures of people in the shower. She spoke ominously of gays spreading “HIV positivity” through the ranks.

“We’re talking about real consequences for real people,” Donnelly proclaimed. Her written statement added warnings about “inappropriate passive/aggressive actions common in the homosexual community,” the prospects of “forcible sodomy” and “exotic forms of sexual expression,” and the case of “a group of black lesbians who decided to gang-assault” a fellow soldier.

At the witness table with Donnelly, retired navy captain Joan Darrah, a lesbian, rolled her eyes in disbelief. Retired marine staff sergeant Eric Alva, a gay man wounded in Iraq, looked as if he would explode.

Inadvertently, Donnelly achieved the opposite of her intended effect.

Although there’s no expectation that Congress will repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” and allow gays to serve openly in the military, the display had the effect of increasing bipartisan sympathy for the cause.

Crusader’s dire warnings about gays in US military backfire on …
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