Lesbian nurse expects Air Force reinstatement

A lesbian flight nurse who was discharged under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy said Tuesday she hopes to be reinstated to the Air Force Reserve in December.

A federal judge ruled two months ago that Maj. Margaret Witt’s firing advanced no legitimate military goals and thus violated her rights. He ordered her to be reinstated, and while the Air Force filed an appeal last week, it did not seek a stay to block Witt from rejoining her unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord while the appeal proceeds.

Though the Department of Justice could still seek such a stay, it informally told Witt’s legal team Monday that it probably won’t, one of Witt’s lawyers said.

“All I ever wanted to do was be there for the troops and other medics when they needed me,” Witt said at a news conference Tuesday. “I hope our elected leaders will repeal this unjust policy and that soon I’ll be known as a flight nurse again, instead of a lesbian flight nurse.”

The news conference at the Seattle office of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington coincided with the Pentagon’s release of a much awaited study on the effect of doing away with “don’t ask, don’t tell.” The 1993 law prohibits the military from inquiring about the sexual orientation of troops but requires the discharge of those found to be engaging in homosexual activity. The survey found that about two-thirds of troops don’t care if the ban on gay service members is lifted.

Witt, 46, was suspended in 2004 and subsequently discharged after the Air Force learned she had been in a long-term relationship with a civilian woman. She sued, and in 2008, an appeals court panel held that for the government to discharge gays it must prove that their firings further military goals.

The appeals court sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton in Tacoma. Following a six-day trial at which several of Witt’s former colleagues testified, Leighton held that her firing actually hurt morale in her unit. He ordered that she be reinstated as soon as possible.

The Air Force said last week it would consider returning Witt to her unit, the 446th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, if she met requirements for serving as a reserve flight nurse – 180 hours of nursing time in the past year plus a fitness exam.

“Until those prerequisites are met, we can’t bring her back on duty,” Lt. Col. Anna Sullivan, spokeswoman for the 446th Airlift Wing, said Tuesday.

But Witt’s attorneys, led by Sarah Dunne of the ACLU of Washington and Seattle lawyer James Lobsenz, disagreed. The judge’s order specified that Witt “must meet the proficiency requirements to the same extent and in the same manner that other flight nurses in the 446th have” – and other flight nurses typically report their annual hours early in the following year.

Witt said Tuesday she has put in 130 hours this year and expects to complete the 180 hours in December. She had hoped to be reinstated in time to participate in her unit’s next on-duty weekend, but that seemed unlikely, since it is scheduled for this weekend.

Witt said she expects to rejoin her unit in January at the latest.

Witt served in the Air Force and Air Force Reserve for 18 years and was discharged shortly before she would have been eligible for retirement benefits. She earned a medal from President George W. Bush for delivering “outstanding medical care” to injured service members while deployed to Oman in support of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. Witt received another medal in 2003 for saving a Defense Department employee who collapsed aboard a flight from Bahrain.

Many of the people Witt served with are no longer in the unit. But Witt said some newer reservists whom she hasn’t met have sent her notes saying they’re excited to serve with her.

DOJ appeals lesbian’s reinstatement to Air Force

A lesbian flight nurse discharged under “don’t ask, don’t tell” can rejoin the Air Force Reserve, even as the government appeals a judge’s ruling that returned her to the job, her lawyers said Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton ruled in September that former Maj. Margaret Witt must be reinstated because her dismissal advanced no legitimate military goals and thus violated her constitutional rights.

The Justice Department appealed that ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, its deadline for doing so.

But government lawyers did not ask the appeals judges to freeze the lower court’s ruling while the appeal proceeds – and Witt’s lawyers said that means she can be reinstated.

“I am thrilled to be able to serve in the Air Force again,” Witt said in a written statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington state. “The men and women in the unit are like family members to me, and I’ve been waiting a long time to rejoin them.”

Witt was suspended in 2004 and subsequently discharged after the Air Force learned she had been in a long-term relationship with a civilian woman. She sued to get her job back.

Leighton initially upheld her firing, but in 2008 a three-judge 9th Circuit panel said military members could not be discharged under “don’t ask” unless their dismissal furthered military goals such as troop morale or unit cohesion. It sent the case back to Leighton, who ruled that Witt’s firing actually hurt morale in her unit.

If Witt is reinstated, she would be serving openly at a time when the military’s policy on gays is in disarray. President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates want to end the ban, but say it should be done through Congress, not the courts. A federal judge in California has declared the 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” law unconstitutional – a ruling the DOJ is also appealing – and in the meantime, the Pentagon has issued new guidelines that have drastically cut the numbers of gays being dismissed under the policy.

The Pentagon plans to release a monthslong study Nov. 30 on how lifting the gay service ban would affect the armed forces.

The Justice Department did not immediately say why it did not seek a stay of Leighton’s ruling. The Air Force Reserve at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle, where Witt was based, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

“It’s indicative of the effort the White House is making to thread the needle on ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” said Chris Neff, deputy executive director of the Palm Center, a pro-repeal think tank based at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “They’re holding the line that they need to continue to appeal these, but they are taking an extra measure to address this policy and try to make it moot. This is the first White House that has really made an effort to keep gays in the military.”

Despite being excited to rejoin the Air Force, Witt said she was disappointed the government was appealing at all.

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said the department was simply defending the law, as it historically does when acts of Congress are challenged. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs insisted that the appeal shows why it’s important for the Senate to repeal the “misguided policy” quickly – before a new Congress takes over, with a slimmer Democratic majority in the Senate.

“This filing in no way diminishes the president’s – and his administration’s – firm commitment to achieving a legislative repeal of DADT this year,” Gibbs said in an e-mailed statement.

“Don’t ask” prohibits the military from asking about the sexual orientation of service members, but allows the discharge of those who acknowledge being gay or are discovered to be engaging in homosexual activity.

Margaret Witt Wins DADT Case; Judge Orders Her Reinstated to Air Force

This is awesome.  The wins keep coming in court:

A federal judge on Friday ordered the reinstatement of an Air Force nurse discharged from the military under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that forbids openly gay service members.

U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton told a packed Tacoma, Wash., courtroom that evidence at a six-day trial showed that former Air Force Reserve Maj. Margaret Witt was an “exemplary officer” who should be “reinstated at the earliest possible moment.”

“Good flight nurses are hard to find,” he said in a 15-page opinion.

In a statement, Witt said she was proud of her career. “Wounded people never asked me about my sexual orientation. They were just glad to see me there,” she said.

Witt was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which said the ruling was the first time a judge had ordered a reinstatement of a service member discharged under “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Anti-gay laws simply don’t hold up under legal scrutiny, by any stretch of the imagination.

Judge to rule Friday on Witt’s return to Air Force

A lawyer for a decorated flight nurse discharged for being gay urged a federal judge Tuesday to reinstate her to the Air Force Reserve, and the judge indicated he might have no other choice.

U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton said he would issue a ruling Friday in the closely watched case of former Maj. Margaret Witt. As her trial closed, he expressed strong doubts about government arguments seeking to have her dismissal upheld.

The judge’s comments came a few hours after Senate Republicans blocked legislation to repeal the 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” law on gays serving in the military.

Gay rights advocates considered the Senate vote a setback, but it focused attention even more on legal challenges to the law – including Witt’s case and a federal case in California, in which a judge found earlier this month that the law violates the free speech and due process rights of gay service members.

In 2006, Leighton rejected Witt’s claims that the Air Force violated her rights when it fired her under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law. An appeals court panel overruled him two years later and said the military can’t fire people for being gay unless it shows their dismissal was necessary to further military goals.

The ruling left it to Leighton to determine whether her firing met that standard. At the end of a six-day trial, he suggested the ruling tied his hands.

“I made my call with regard to whether this act was constitutional,” he said. “My colleagues – my friends – said, ‘Ron, you got it wrong,’” Leighton said during an extensive back-and-forth with a Justice Department lawyer. “They told me what I needed to do, what I needed to ask.”

Witt, of Spokane, joined the Air Force in 1987 and was suspended in 2004, just short of retirement, after her commanders learned she was in a relationship with a civilian woman. She was a flight nurse with an aeromedical evacuation squadron responsible for transporting and caring for injured soldiers.

Her attorneys, led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, insisted that Witt was well respected and liked by her colleagues, that her sexuality never caused problems in the unit, and that her firing actually hurt military goals such as morale, unit cohesion and troop readiness. Several members of the squadron testified to that effect and said they would welcome Witt back to the unit.

Lawyers for the Air Force said such evidence was irrelevant. Military personnel decisions can’t be run by unit referendum, they said.

Instead, Justice Department lawyer Peter Phipps asked the judge to look back at the reasons Congress cited for passing “don’t ask,” including the possibility that gay service members could have limited privacy during deployments, and determine whether those factors were relevant to Witt’s case.

Leighton responded that such an approach would provide a nearly meaningless constitutional analysis, “a far cry” from the heightened scrutiny called for by the 9th Circuit’s decision.

He said he considered two other arguments from the government unpersuasive: that Witt posed a threat to unit cohesion and integrity because she once committed adultery, and that Witt shouldn’t be reinstated because the military has an overriding need for uniformity in its personnel policies. Refusing to reinstate Witt for the latter reason would require him to overrule the 9th Circuit, Leighton said.

He said he did not believe the courts were the appropriate venue for deciding whether gays can serve openly in the military, and he credited the Justice Department lawyers for doing an excellent job despite having a tough legal row to hoe.

“You are in a difficult spot, and everybody knows it,” he said. “Your ability to take a licking and keep on ticking is much appreciated.”

James Lobsenz, an attorney for Witt, said in his closing argument that the government presented no evidence that Witt would cause problems if returned to her unit. It was unconscionable, he said, that she had to conceal her sexuality for years even as she won awards for distinguished service in evacuating and treating wounded troops and government employees from Afghanistan and elsewhere.

“She can go back and serve, and no one will have to lie,” Lobsenz said.

Lesbian seeks reinstatement to Air Force in trial

Opponents of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy against gays serving in the military are hoping for another major legal victory as a federal trial begins Monday over whether to reinstate a lesbian flight nurse discharged from the Air Force Reserve.

The trial comes just days after a federal judge in California declared “don’t ask, don’t tell” an unconstitutional violation of the due process and free speech rights of gays and lesbians. While the ruling does not affect the legal issues in the case of former Maj. Margaret Witt, gay rights activists believe a victory - and her reinstatement - could help build momentum for repealing the policy.

“There’s already political momentum to do something to repeal this unfair statute,” said Aaron Caplan, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who is on Witt’s legal team. “Judicial opinions from multiple jurisdictions saying there’s a constitutional problem with this ought to encourage Congress to act more swiftly.”

Lesbian lieutenant discharged from the Air Force Lt. Robin Chaurasiya, a lesbian Air Force officer, was honorably discharged on Monday under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. This is a reversal of a decision to not dismiss Chaurasiya made by military personnel earlier in her case. Chaurasiya and her girlfriend had a civil union in New Hampshire in December 2009, but at first, the military speculated that she was using Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to get out of serving.
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Lesbian lieutenant discharged from the Air Force

Lt. Robin Chaurasiya, a lesbian Air Force officer, was honorably discharged on Monday under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. This is a reversal of a decision to not dismiss Chaurasiya made by military personnel earlier in her case.

Chaurasiya and her girlfriend had a civil union in New Hampshire in December 2009, but at first, the military speculated that she was using Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to get out of serving.

equalitopia: Lesbian air force sergeant discharged after being outed by police A lesbian sergeant in the US air force was discharged after police told her superiors about her sexual orientation. Jene Newsome, 28, did not violate the US military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy on gay soldiers keeping their sexual orientation secret. But she was outed by police officers who spotted her Iowa marriage certificate when searching for her wife in November. Ms Newsome, a Rapid City, South Dakota, resident, was discharged in January. She and the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota have filed a complaint, saying the officers violated her privacy. They are considering whether to file a lawsuit against the police department. (Full story: Pink News UK)
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equalitopia:

Lesbian air force sergeant discharged after being outed by police

A lesbian sergeant in the US air force was discharged after police told her superiors about her sexual orientation.

Jene Newsome, 28, did not violate the US military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy on gay soldiers keeping their sexual orientation secret. But she was outed by police officers who spotted her Iowa marriage certificate when searching for her wife in November.

Ms Newsome, a Rapid City, South Dakota, resident, was discharged in January.

She and the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota have filed a complaint, saying the officers violated her privacy. They are considering whether to file a lawsuit against the police department.

(Full story: Pink News UK)

Ruling on gay Air Force major creates dilemma

Furthermore, if the military cannot demonstrate a gay member’s discharge would hurt the unit, that person might end up serving openly - even as others around the globe continue to be discharged.

The military is currently in the midst of a 45-day effort to analyze how to apply “don’t ask, don’t tell” more humanely through administrative changes to the policy, and the standard is one thing being looked at.