Free Republic

Twelve years ago this week, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the discriminatory military policy that barred lesbian, gay and bisexual people from serving openly in the U.S. Armed Forces, ended. Between 1994 and 2011, while Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was in effect, the military kicked me and an estimated 14,000 of my peers out — not for our merits, but simply because of who we were as people. While ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell enabled military service for lesbian, gay and bisexual people, transgender people were still de facto banned under a McCarthy-era executive order that tasked federal agencies with investigating...