About 300 gay active-duty service members and veterans marched in an contingent alongside straight supporters at Saturday’s San Diego Pride Parade, a first in the event’s history.
Publicly proclaiming they are gay while in the military used to mean automatic discharge, but legal experts say the impending repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the law that prohibits gay troops from openly declaring their sexual orientation, likely means there will be no repercussions for those who marched.
That legislation has been maneuvering the legal system for a complete repeal since a California federal judge deemed it unconstitutional in October. The parade happened the day after the latest decision by a federal appeals court to reinstate enforcement of the law.
Despite it technically still being law, Department of Defense spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said just before the parade that the court’s reinstatement of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell doesn’t change the policy: Discharges and investigations of gay service members remain suspended.
But the legality of the law wasn’t at the forefront for those marching.
“It wasn’t a political statement that we were making at all,” said active-duty Marine Jaime Rincon, who marched Saturday “It was…strictly showing pride of who we are as individuals and showing pride of our branches in whole.”
Retired Operation Specialist Sean Sala approached San Diego Pride about including a military float about five months ago. Since then, Sala said, he got support from both gay and straight troops.
“The main passion behind this was the fact that…Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell didn’t just affect gays and lesbians in the service, it affected everybody,” Sala said.
Rincon said straight troops marched in the contingent to show support to fellow service members. Rincon, who also attended last year’s San Diego Pride “as a bystander,” said for him, actively partaking in the parade this year “was an experience of a lifetime. It was very, very emotional.”
“Everybody is made equally,” Rincon said. “[Just] because you’re gay or lesbian doesn’t mean you cannot get the job done.”
Celebrating active-duty service members in the parade is a “practical human dignity that we should’ve been at a long time ago,” Sala said.
In the week before the parade, Service Members Legal Defense Network, an organization that provides legal advice to those facing investigations due to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell warned participants of the possible repercussions due to openly stating their sexual orientation.
Even after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on an injunction against the policy, calling it unconstitutional, on July 11, David McKean, legal director of the network said “down the road…any statement they made in the meantime could be used against them in the future.”
“The only way that service members can rest assure that they are not under threat of a discharge at any point in the future is for full certification to take place and the repeal to be implemented 60 days later,” McKean added
Since Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was implemented in 1993, more than 14,000 service members have been discharged.
Sala said the inclusion of active gay members should encourage legal changes, particularly a change that would allow members to wear their military uniforms at the parade.
“I hope the government will see this, and I hope lawmakers will see this and I hope citizens will see this and they will say it’s time that the government sanctions military contingents for Pride Parades,” he said.
Sala feels encouraged that both gay and straight service members are “coming out to say: We are the military. We are one and we are unstoppable when it comes to what we defend and that’s the constitution of the United States, regardless of sexual orientation.”