70 Arizona Service Members Fired for Homosexuality
by AP Tuesday, Jun. 22, 2004 at 2:36 AM

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy has resulted in the firings of at least 70 service members in Arizona in recent years.

70 Arizona service members fired for homosexuality

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy has resulted in the firings of at least 70 service members in Arizona in recent years.

Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista discharged 51 gay and lesbian soldiers between 1998 and 2003, according to Defense Department statistics. Eleven airmen from Tucson's Davis-Monthan Air Force and eight from Luke Air Force Base in Glendale were discharged in the same period. The statistics did not list any discharges at Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma.

The information was obtained by the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California at Santa Barbara through a public records request submitted to the Defense Department.

Worldwide, 6,300 service members were discharged during the six-year period.

The head of a Tucson gay and lesbian support group said the firings debase the American ideal of equality under the law.

"We find it amazing in the year 2004 that we are still dealing with this form of legalized discrimination in our society," said Kent Burbank, executive director of Tucson's Wingspan.

Elaine Donnelly of the Michigan-based Center for Military Readiness, a conservative group that opposes gays in the military, said service members fired for their sexual orientation shouldn't have been in the military at all.

"The law says homosexuality is incompatible with military service, so the people who were dismissed were not eligible to serve," said Donnelly.

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On the Net:

UC Santa Barbara's site for DOD data: http://www.gaymilitary.ucsb.edu

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