DAILY BRIEFING
Air Force discharges
of gays on the rise
The number of Air Force members discharged for homosexuality increased by a third in 1998. Service officials suggested many declared their homosexuality to secure a quick discharge, the Associated Press reported Friday.
More than half of the 414 discharges were at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, where new recruits complete basic training. In most cases, those discharged voluntarily disclosed they were gay, Air Force officials said.
"In virtually every self-initiated disclosure, the second statement made is, 'I'd also like to be discharged,'" said David Smith, an Air Force spokesman at Air Education and Training Command at Randolph, Texas.
Under the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, commanders are prohibited from questioning members of the military services about their sexual orientation.
T'jae Gibson, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said a review of discharges at Lackland last year found that most instructors and trainees there believed the acknowledgments of homosexuality were made to escape the service.
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