Federal Appeals Court Reviews Dismissal of Lesbian Air Force Nurse  | News | Advocate.com

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November 07, 2007
Federal Appeals Court Reviews Dismissal of Lesbian Air Force Nurse

A federal appeals court panel will review the dismissal of an accomplished Air Force nurse who was fired for being gay, according to the Associated Press.

James Lobsenz, a lawyer representing Maj. Margaret Witt, argued Monday that the dismissal violates his client’s right to freedom from governmental intrusion in her private life. The court, he said, should strike down the government’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy or at least reinstate an earlier lawsuit his client had filed against the government.

Witt, 42, was honorably discharged after her superiors learned that she had been in a long-term relationship with a civilian woman. An Air Force nurse for 18 years, Witt would have received entitlement benefits after two more years of service.

Lobsenz claimed that the Supreme Court’s 2003 ruling against sodomy laws in Texas showed that the government has no right to intrude into the bedrooms of consenting adults. Witt’s relationship took place in Witt’s hometown of Spokane, Wash., hundreds of miles from McChord Air Base in western Washington, where she had been stationed.

“At all times she kept her sexual life private,” Lobsenz said, according to the AP.

Jonathan F. Cohn, a deputy assistant attorney general with the Department of Justice, acknowledged that the significance of the 2003 ruling is not completely clear, but he said “the court very clearly stops short of recognizing a fundamental right” to privacy for gays, according to the AP.

Witt, who joined the Air Force in 1987, cared for injured patients on military flights. A citation from President Bush in 2003 read, “Her airmanship and courage directly contributed to the successful accomplishment of important missions under extremely hazardous circumstances.” (The Advocate)

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