U.S. soldiers booted under DADT to receive full pay

Here’s the latest reason to love the ACLU: They’ve just won a class-action suit on behalf of U.S. Military veterans who were discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the last nine years, ensuring that they will receive their full severance pay:

People discharged from the military under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" since November 10, 2004 who had only received one-half separation pay following their discharge but who otherwise would have received full pay now will be entitled to that full separation pay, according to the terms of a settlement agreement reached Monday between the American Civil Liberties Union and the federal government.

[…]

The case impacts approximately 181 honorably discharged veterans who had their separation pay cut in half because of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, according to the ACLU. In order to be eligible for full separation pay, a servicemember has to have served at least six years.

Now, 181 seems like a suspiciously small number compared to the estimated 13,000 troops who were forced out during the policy’s 18-year hold. It’ll be interesting to see if the rest receive any sort of compensation as well, though considering the difficulty in acquiring benefits for those above-mentioned honorably discharged veterans, I wouldn’t hold my breath for very long.

(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

Pentagon report debunks DADT fear-mongering (yet again)

We now have yet more evidence to throw in the faces of all those far-Right homophobes who’ve spent the last year (and longer) going apoplectic over the demise of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” with hysterical claims about the loss of morale and unit cohesion and the enslavement of chaplains and whatnot. Following report after report about the “negligible” effect caused by the repeal, we now have official recruitment statistics from the Department of Defense that blow a crater right through all those myths about the impending homosexualized decline of the U.S.’s armed forces:

All four active services met or exceeded their numerical accession goals for fiscal 2012:

-- Army: 60,490 accessions, for 104 percent of its goal of 58,000;

-- Navy: 36,329 accessions, for 100 percent of its goal of 36,275;

-- Marine Corps: 30,514 accessions, for 100 percent of its goal of 30,500;

-- Air Force: 29,037 accessions, for 100 percent of its goal of 29,037.

The Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force all exhibited strong retention through fiscal 2012.

That’s right: Not only have enlisted soldiers not left in protest of the gay plague, but in addition to recruitment remaining exactly on the mark, there’s even more people joining up than had been expected. We’re really running out of space on that ever-growing list of failed religious-Right predictions.

Of course, they could always just stop making such mindless and easily disproven claims … but then, you know what they say about expecting crazy people to stop doing crazy things.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)