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June 25, 2008

Researcher: More Lesbians Than Gay Men in the Military

Researcher: More Lesbians Than Gay Men in the Military

Lesbians could very well outnumber gay men in the military, according to Williams Institute senior research fellow Gary Gates.

“The percentage of lesbians that serve in the military is really quite high,” he said. “It’s possible that there are more lesbians than gay men serving in the military.”

Gates’s interpretation could explain why such a disproportionate percentage of women in the military (relative to the percentage of female service members) are discharged under the military’s "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy. Even though women account for only about 15% of the Army and Air Force, new numbers released this week show that they make up nearly half of all DADT discharges.

The new data, gathered under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an advocacy group for military personnel, was published in a New York Times article on June 23. The figures show an increase in the percentage of women discharged under "don’t ask, don’t tell" between 2006 and 2007.

“It’s not that [the Times] made factual errors,” Gates insists, but without an interpretation, the information suggests that a disproportionate number of women were discharged from the military under "don’t ask, don’t tell" in 2007 for no apparent reason. “Why might that be? That’s the question [the Times] didn’t answer for me,” Gates said.

Gates says the issue isn’t what percentage of women make up the military, it’s the “percentage of women among gay and lesbian populations in the military.” Based on statistical techniques and census data utilized by Gates and the Williams Institute, they found that the LGB population could account for anywhere from 40% to upward of 50% of the total female service members. According to Gates, “This is the key reason you see high proportions of women among ["don’t ask, don’t tell"] discharges.” (Hannah Clay Wareham, The Advocate)

Keywords:  DADT 
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Reader Comments

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  • Name: Tom J. Kuzma
    Date posted: 2008-06-25 7:43 PM
    Hometown: Sheridan WY

    Comment:

    Sheryl wrote "maybe they're not just as good at hiding their sexual orientation (or keeping quiet about it)..." I rather suspect it is still mostly driven by the mysogynistic traditions of "our" military, and DADTDHDP is a convenient tool. Domestic violence (males against everybody) in mil "families" was still huge and hidden when I separated the USN-USMC-USNR in 1996, and one of the two questions I was most asked as a Petty Officer in a major NavHosp ER was "How can you work with all these women?!" It came mostly from shipboard enlisteds including NOCs, i.e., the culture of the Navy at the time.


  • Name: Sheryl Samertold
    Date posted: 2008-06-25 7:11 PM
    Hometown: Billings, MT

    Comment:

    "a disproportionate number of women were discharged from the military under "don’t ask, don’t tell" in 2007 for no apparent reason. “Why might that be?" Maybe they're just not as good at hiding their sexual orientation (or keeping quiet about it) than the gay men are?


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