Army Dismisses Arabic Linguist for Being Gay

from MSNBC

decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy, though he says he never admitted being gay and his accuser was never identified.

Bleu Copas, 30, admitted he is gay, but said he was "outed" by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.

An eight-month Army investigation culminated in Copas' honorable discharge on Jan. 30 — less than four years after he enlisted, he said, out of a post-Sept. 11 sense of duty to his country.
He plans to appeal to the Army Board for Correction of Military Records.

The "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy, established in 1993, prohibits the military from inquiring about the sex lives of service members, but requires discharges of those who openly acknowledge being gay. More than 11,000 service members have been dismissed under the policy, including 726 last year — an 11 percent jump from 2004 and the first increase since 2001. That’s less than a half-percent of the more than 2 million soldiers, sailors and Marines dismissed for all reasons since 1993.