Going Through the Motions

DADT at Middlebury College

by Kevin Moss
       Middlebury – Queer students, faculty, and staff at Middlebury College were surprised to return for the spring semester and find that a Marine recruiter was scheduled to appear, in spite of the fact that the military ban on open gay and lesbian servicemen conflicts with the college's non-discrimination policy. Because of the Solomon Amendment, which denies federal funds to colleges and universities if they don’t allow military recruiters, Middlebury allows any employer on campus if its representatives first hold a meeting to 'explain' the discriminatory policy.
     Marine Captain David Doucette led a discussion of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" on Tuesday, February 8. Over 160 students, faculty, and staff attended. Under rigorous questioning, the recruiter's comments stayed close to the text of the policy.
     Members of the Middlebury College community asked questions about such issues as lesbian baiting, parallels between arguments used to exclude LGBT service members and those used against racially integrating the military in the 1940s, and the fact that requiring service members to lie would seem to be a breach of the service's professed values of honor and integrity.
      Doucette claimed queer service members would not be forced to lie, because they cannot be asked direct questions about homosexuality. When asked why it was better for soldiers not to know someone serving with them is queer, he drew an analogy to pedophiles and bank robbers.
     Statistics fueled more questions: why are women twice as likely to be discharged in proportion to their representation in the service? Why, if homosexuals are incompatible with good order and discipline, have discharges have gone down since 2001, when we are at war? Doucette's most frequent answer: "I don't know."
     The following day, Capt. Doucette manned an information table at one of the student dining halls, while concerned students, with some faculty and staff, staged a silent protest outside. They wore colorful gags and stood at attention to represent the queer service members who are gagged by the law. JS Woodward, one of the students who organized the protest, collected signatures on a letter to the President and Trustees of the College to change the policy that allowed Doucette to recruit on campus. Queer members of the college community and their allies plan a push to change the college policy to ban all employers who discriminate.
     The Solomon Amendment has been legally challenged by the Forum for Academic and Individual Rights and was held as unconstitutional by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The case is being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kevin Moss is a professor of Russian at Middlebury College, and a member of GLEAM.