The following poem was written about my own forced resignation from the Air Force on October 12, 1979. My accuser, Cadet Bostic, was forced to quit the Academy a week earlier for lying repeatedly during the entire investigation.
It was a sad and even tragic experience for everyone involved. Nobody benefited, especially not the Air Force. Being an Air Force officer and an instructor at the Academy had been my first, best destiny and now it was over for good.
Discharging gay and lesbian service members--and it has been many thousands of us over the past several decades, beginning as long ago as WWI--has cost lives and millions and millions of dollars. We are not security risks. Our service does not impair morale, no more so than African-Americans serving, or Japanese-Americans serving, or Hispanic-Americans serving, or women serving. To prevent us from serving openly and to force us to resign when we are discovered is simply bigotry and intolerance and sometimes even blind ignorance.
If your religious beliefs prevent you from serving and working with gays and lesbians, then you need to consider a different career choice than military service because most religious Americans do not have a problem with gay and lesbian service members. The various branches of the military do not discriminate against religious beliefs as long as those beliefs do not interfere with military duties. Over the decades, the U.S. Armed Forces have been mandated to integrate various groups, and they have done so, though not without some friction and the passage of time.
We are American citizens. And our tradition of serving our country in peace and war has been long and effective, even serving in silence. That silence needs to end at long last.
Resignation
Who remembers runners in-between?
From the feet at the blocks
to the chest at the tape,
in a relay
those who neither start nor finish,
once having successfully passed,
simply vanish.
I was one of those blurs in the middle.
Now certain I am forgot.
Never dead, or even outran,
I am bent for breath unnoticed
on a turn farthest from view.
I made one mistake.
As the camera angled
from a close beginning to a closer end,
I was perfectly passing in the wide sweep
of no detail.
It was a sad and even tragic experience for everyone involved. Nobody benefited, especially not the Air Force. Being an Air Force officer and an instructor at the Academy had been my first, best destiny and now it was over for good.
Discharging gay and lesbian service members--and it has been many thousands of us over the past several decades, beginning as long ago as WWI--has cost lives and millions and millions of dollars. We are not security risks. Our service does not impair morale, no more so than African-Americans serving, or Japanese-Americans serving, or Hispanic-Americans serving, or women serving. To prevent us from serving openly and to force us to resign when we are discovered is simply bigotry and intolerance and sometimes even blind ignorance.
If your religious beliefs prevent you from serving and working with gays and lesbians, then you need to consider a different career choice than military service because most religious Americans do not have a problem with gay and lesbian service members. The various branches of the military do not discriminate against religious beliefs as long as those beliefs do not interfere with military duties. Over the decades, the U.S. Armed Forces have been mandated to integrate various groups, and they have done so, though not without some friction and the passage of time.
We are American citizens. And our tradition of serving our country in peace and war has been long and effective, even serving in silence. That silence needs to end at long last.
Resignation
Who remembers runners in-between?
From the feet at the blocks
to the chest at the tape,
in a relay
those who neither start nor finish,
once having successfully passed,
simply vanish.
I was one of those blurs in the middle.
Now certain I am forgot.
Never dead, or even outran,
I am bent for breath unnoticed
on a turn farthest from view.
I made one mistake.
As the camera angled
from a close beginning to a closer end,
I was perfectly passing in the wide sweep
of no detail.
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