The Army, Navy, and Air Force advertised for new recruits on a gay Web site until told of their error. According to USA Today, the military recruiters were advertising on GLEE.com, a site for gay and lesbian professionals. However, the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy prevents gays and lesbians from openly serving in any branch of the armed forces, so the recruiters have since pulled the ads.
Most of the military jobs posted were hard-to-fill positions requiring advanced training, although some ads sought to fill core combat slots at a time when the Iraq War has challenged recruiters to meet goals. They included:
*Thousands of Navy openings for doctors, dentists, intelligence analysts, Arabic translators, and others.
*Hundreds of Air Force jobs for optometrists, social workers, physician's assistants, and nurses.
*Nearly 1,000 Army National Guard and active Army positions, including infantry and artillery.
The ads were placed through GLEE's parent company, New York-based Community Connect, as part of an alliance with jobs-listing giant Monster.com.
Steve Ralls of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a gay advocacy group, savored the irony of the military's errant recruiting pitches.
"The majority of GLEE's members would not be allowed to be as open in the military as they are online," he told USA Today, adding that gays "have been drummed out of the armed forces simply for using sites like GLEE."
Since "don't ask, don't tell" was put in effect in 1993, 11,082 soldiers have been discharged at a huge cost, estimated by some to be $363 million, to American taxpayers. (The Advocate)
