General says Air Force lesbian won't be kicked out.

In a bizarre twist, an Air Force general is refusing to discharge a female officer who revealed that she is in a civil union with another woman because he alleges she is using Don't Ask, Don't Tell to avoid military service. I can't help but be reminded of Cpl. Klinger, played by Jamie Farr, in the 70's sitcom M*A*S*H, who wore women's clothes in order to get kicked out of the army. Everyone knew it was a dodge and refused to kick him out, but he kept at it.

But that was when we had a draft in this country. It was not unheard of for people to make up such stories to avoid military service back then. Those individuals were usually subjected to a battery of psychological tests for days on end to prove they were lying. For the last 35 years, we've had an all volunteer military and to my knowledge, no such testing has been required of anyone who has been discharged under DADT in the 17 years since it became law.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that Lt. Robin R. Caurasiya revealed to her commanding officer, General Robert R. Allardice, that she is a lesbian, but the general claims that she's only doing it to get out of the service.

The Times reports:

At the very least, said Nathaniel Frank, an expert on "don't ask, don't tell," the Chaurasiya case appears to turn the rationale behind the gay ban on its head.

"If commanders are ignoring or rejecting credible evidence of homosexuality because of the alleged motive of the person who makes the statement, the bottom line is they are keeping gay people in the service," said Frank, a senior research fellow at UC Santa Barbara's Palm Center. "That gives the lie that known gay people undercut the military."

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