END TO PENTAGON DON'T ASK DON'T TELL TO INCLUDE FRENCH

by R J Shulman

WASHINGTON - (PTSD News) - The Pentagon will begin the dismantling of it's controversial "don't ask don't tell" policy according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. While the policy has been mostly associated with gay and lesbian service members, Gates says the policy will also be lifted for the French.

"Allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military is the right thing to do," said Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, "and it should apply to service people who just happen to have a French background."

The "don't ask, don't tell" policy, enacted during the Clinton years did not allow any homosexual or person of French abstraction to serve in the armed forces, but the military could not ask a member their sexual orientation or whether they had an affinity for France. However, once discovered homosexual or French, it meant an immediate discharge. Sources indicate more than 13,550 service members true identities were discovered and were released from service. "I thought with this policy, I was safe to be of French heritage," said Claude La Boeuf, who was discharged from the Marines last June, "but I guess my preference for wine over beer gave me away."

The don't ask don't tell policy has been a lightning rod for politicians of all stripes who have used the issue to drum up support from their base. "Just tell me where in the Bible it says that it is not an abomination to allow a Frenchie to serve in the military," said Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla). "This is truly an outrage," said Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss), "our military command is so infested with the French that they have surrendered to the gays."

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