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Professor Banned for Gay Talk


AIR FORCE JETS X 390 (GETTY)

Lt. Col. Edith A. Disler, an Air Force officer with 25 years of service, revealed Thursday that she was disciplined and barred from teaching at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., after she invited three gay academy graduates to speak to her class about the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

On November 14, 2008, members of the Blue Alliance, a group of LGBT academy alumni, spoke to her language, literature and leadership class for about 10 minutes and, according to Disler, appeared to be very well received by students.

Yet a week after the talk, Disler learned she was being investigated, according to the Modesto Bee. She was not allowed to return to her classroom and could not discuss the matter with students. Academy spokesman John Van Winkle said the investigation began after cadets in the class complained.

A month later she received a formal letter of counseling from the dean of faculty, Dana H. Born. The letter said the Blue Alliance presentation "had the potential to generate the perception that the USAF Academy has taken a position on gays in the military that is contrary to current Air Force and Department of Defense policy on this matter." It chastised Disler for failing to recognize "that negative publicity could follow your decision...[that] had the potential to create the perception that the USAF Academy does not support current Air Force and Department of Defense policy on a this [sic] sensitive manner."

"It’s amazing to say that Air Force Academy combat veterans are not welcome on campus just because they’re gay," said Disler.

According to the academy, Disler was reprimanded because she didn't receive her department head's approval before the talk. Though Disler claims there was no such requirement in place at the time, Van Winkle said she violated a "policy that did exist at that time," and she was barred from teaching for failing to follow that rule.

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Reader Comments
  • Name: Amanda
    Date posted: 10/13/2009 3:41:16 PM
    Hometown: Santa Barbara

    Comment:

    Curious that this instructor has been disciplined when others in the past have invited Aaron Belkin, the director of the Palm Center, to talk to their classes. Videos are up on YouTube of Belkin at the AFA.

  • Name: SJAmes
    Date posted: 10/12/2009 1:15:26 AM
    Hometown: Ba

    Comment:

    Time for all mil gays to come out big time, and demand either to be accepted as they are or be discharged.. Faced with a catastrophe for our overextended military, we'll see whether defending America or defending homophobia is their idea of America.

  • Name: Roger Burr
    Date posted: 10/11/2009 11:33:18 AM
    Hometown: Marble Hill, MO

    Comment:

    This is the same AFA which, a few years back, was investigated foolling complaints from female underclassmen of sexual harrassment and, in a few cases, actual RAPE! I guess the AFA leadership doesn't care what you do with your sex drive, as long as the object of that drive remains the opposite sex.

  • Name: boo
    Date posted: 10/11/2009 3:17:57 AM
    Hometown: Seattle

    Comment:

    That CO displays the type of conservative resistance to accepting glbt from some quarters of the military that Obama has to contend with in order to repeal DADT. You can't just force people to change their attitudes on the spot, some of the extra-rigid types might just snap and have a gay panic attack or something. Consider this CO for example; her intolerance got the best of her even knowing that the end of DADT is just around the corner. If she couldn't let something that trivial slide, how are flexibility-challenged officers like that supposed to be ready to command openly gay and lesbian service members? It can't be easy to stop homophobia on a dime; maybe Obama is right to give the military a little more time to get used to the idea.

  • Name: wafuu
    Date posted: 10/10/2009 10:27:16 PM
    Hometown: Japan

    Comment:

    The dean of faculty is correct, perception matters. However, the perception of many following the reprimand of this faculty member is one that is negative towards the military as a whole, Air Force leadership in particular. While happy to have courageous young gays and lesbians in their midst to carry out their mission, military leadership is unwilling to openly discuss the impact of DADT on military members--whether positive or negative. These are men and women who, I would assume, all received honorable discharges. In each case, their service should be honored and their character should not be impugned. Absent their presence in the classroom, it is doubtful that any such reprimand would have taken place. Which begs the question: Is the military at its core homophobic? If so, why would any American wish to serve such an intolerant institution? If our U.S. military, for all its physical might, can not stand on solid moral ground, how honorable is its stated mission or its leadership?

  • Name: Carol
    Date posted: 10/10/2009 1:34:02 PM
    Hometown: MO

    Comment:

    Disler probably won't make Colonel now because she has a reprimand on her record. What does it say about our Armed Services when AF Academy graduates, and combat veterans are not welcome for ten minutes to talk to a class of aspiring AF students? Very sad and totally unacceptable in America. That students in that class reported this to higher officers is also rather disturbing as well. It seems that radical religious ideas are still in play in the AFA.

  • Name: Jim Webber
    Date posted: 10/10/2009 12:29:52 PM
    Hometown: Sacramento

    Comment:

    I am curious that the cadets who complained were not removed from the academy for narrow-mindedness, bigotry and cowardice.

  • Name: ArtNOLA
    Date posted: 10/10/2009 9:56:26 AM
    Hometown: New Orleans

    Comment:

    Wafuu - Well said!!!

  • Name: Gina9223
    Date posted: 10/10/2009 9:54:44 AM
    Hometown: New York City

    Comment:

    1. She's a support weenie, ya never listen to support weenies! 2. She's a pshrink... well, she's lucky she's in the AF, if she ever hits a civilian practice she's not gonna make a lot of money. 3. I think she's over compensating a bit, it happens with some female CO's. They try to prove they have bigger balls than the last man in the post.

  • Name: wafuu
    Date posted: 10/10/2009 4:14:47 AM
    Hometown: japan

    Comment:

    The military fights to the death to defend free speech, but does not allow it as part of a dialogue between this professor and her classroom of future military leaders. Kinda makes you wonder why gay or straight would want to fight to join the military to defend such intolerance.



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