Two Gay Servicemen to Speak about 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy at UCSF, VA
Dan Choi
Two gay service members, as well as the nation’s leading expert on gays in the military, will visit UCSF and the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in November.
At noon on Friday, Nov. 6, Lt. Dan Choi will visit the Parnassus campus to describe his experiences as a gay Iraq veteran. A Korean American West Point graduate, Lt. Choi served for a decade under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
In March 2009, Lt. Choi decided to challenge the policy by coming out as gay on MSNBC TV’s “Rachel Maddow Show.” One month later, he was notified that the Army had begun discharge proceedings against him, despite his service record and fluency in Arabic.
Lt. Choi, a native of Tustin, CA, is now travelling the US to advocate repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, a position favored by 69 percent of Americans in a May 2009 Gallup poll. His talk at UCSF’s Parnassus campus in Health Sciences West, room 300, is co-sponsored by the UCSF LGBT Center and the UCSF Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on GLBT Issues.
At noon on Friday, Nov. 20, the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and the VAMC Mental Health Service will present a roundtable discussion featuring Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Rocha and Aaron Belkin, director of UC Santa Barbara’s Palm Center, the nation’s leading research center on sexual minorities in the military. The discussion, “The Health Effects of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’” will be held in the VAMC Auditorium.
Joseph Rocha
Petty Officer Rocha was mentioned recently in national news programs after the Secretary of the Navy reprimanded and forced the retirement of his commanding officer, based on complaints from Petty Officer Rocha and others that he harassed and abused them because of their sexual orientation. Incidents mentioned in the complaints included the alleged forced simulation of homosexual acts, being fed dog food, and being hog-tied to a chair and rolled into a kennel full of feces. Belkin and the Palm Center were instrumental in bringing the complaints to the Navy’s attention.
UCSF Professor of Psychiatry Rob Daroff, MD, is “very excited” about the UCSF and VAMC events. “They will educate our staff about the really powerful negative effects of the don’t ask, don’t tell policy, which forces servicemembers to lie to their colleagues and makes them vulnerable to anti-gay harassment.”
Adds Daroff, “We’ve had veterans at our hospital talk about becoming suicidal over fears that they would be outed and abused. The policy makes it nearly impossible for them to defend themselves, because if they speak up, they could be discharged.”
Both November events are open to the public and free of charge.
The act, passed by Congress in 1993, prohibits any gays or lesbians from disclosing his or her sexual orientation or from speaking about any homosexual relationships while serving in the United States armed forces. The “don’t ask” part of the policy indicates that superiors should not initiate investigation of a service member’s orientation in the absence of disallowed behaviors, though mere suspicion of homosexual behavior can cause an investigation.
Last month, President Barack Obama reaffirmed his campaign pledge to end the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military, but offered no timetable or specifics for fulfilling that pledge.
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