Back on April 5, I posted this blog about Robin Chaurasiya who enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, didn’t ask, didn’t tell and completed her service and got out. Then she was called back to active duty. A fellow soldier — a man she had once
- Robin Chaurasiya
dated — gave her commanding officer a copy of an e-mail in which Chaurasiya discussed being gay. The commanding officer called her in and said look, someone is spreading nasty rumors. Chaurasiya decides to come out, saying she was tired of living a lie. But the commanding officer refuses to discharge her, saying that the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy has a clause that says people who say they are gay for the purpose of avoiding military service won’t be discharged.
Whew. Got that? I hope so.
Anyway, now Air Force officials, after further review, have decided they are going to kick Chaurasiya out, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
From Today’s L.A. Times:
On Monday [April 19], Air Force officials told Chaurasiya that a more senior officer, Gen. Raymond E. Johns Jr., reversed the earlier decision and recommended she be honorably discharged.
“Chaurasiya had denied she was trying to leave the Air Force, and instead was trying to confront what she believed was the injustice of the military policy.
“‘I am kind of heartbroken,’ said Chaurasiya, who is stationed at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. ‘I felt my situation was hinting at changes. I really thought I would be able to lead the way for a more equal military.’
“In a statement, the Air Force said that its Air Mobility Command recommended Chaurasiya be discharged. A final decision will be made by Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley.”
The Times also points out that the Air Force says the decision to go ahead and discharge Chaurasiya was made following the introduction of new evidence in the case. Chaurasiya says the “new evidence” came when officials interviewed her partner to determine if their civil union was “real.”
(The Air Force had earlier claimed that Chaurasiya had entered into a legal civil union in New Hampshire as part of a charade to get discharged.)
And people wonder why we can’t win the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! Perhaps in the military would just leave its gay and lesbian soldiers alone and let them do their jobs, we could get the job done and get out of there!
