San Diego veterans join chorus demanding a repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

[toymachines]

http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-11-11/politics-city-county-government/san-diego-veterans-join-chorus-demanding-a-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell##ixzz0WZxA30Le">San Diego veterans join chorus demanding a repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
By Joseph Peña, SDNN

Opponents of the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian service members increased calls this week to repeal the 16-year-old law referred to as “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”

During a panel Tuesday — on the eve of Veterans Day — 23-year-old Navy veteran Joseph Rocha called the military’s policy an “open invitation” to abuse service members, regardless of gender and sexual orientation.

Rocha, a student at the University of San Diego, suffered more than two years of taunts, hazing and abuse in the U.S. Navy, before admitting to his commander he was gay.

Rocha was honorably discharged, and a subsequent investigation found more than 93 counts of abuse against Rocha and several sailors, and 27 violations of military code of conduct by Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint.

...Rocha says during his time with a bomb-sniffing K9 unit in Bahrain, he was tied to a chair and left in dog kennels, hosed down in full uniform and forced to simulate oral sex on another sailor... http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-11-11/politics-city-county-government/san-diego-veterans-join-chorus-demanding-a-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell##ixzz0WZxA30Le">Read more

http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-11-11/politics-city-county-government/san-diego-veterans-join-chorus-demanding-a-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell##ixzz0WZxA30Le

[Toasterlad]

1. President Obama's Response: "Yawn"