Comments | sg_research: DADT Question?

sentientcitizen in sg_research

DADT Question?

Aug 15, 2009 16:58

Ignorant Canadian with a question about the whole "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" thing. If someone in the USAF - from somewhere in the airmen tier, say - suspected that one of their superiors - a company or field grade officer - was a homosexual/engaged in homosexual acitivities, what would they do? File a complaint? Request a meeting with their superior ( Read more... )

Comments 7

michelel72 August 15 2009, 21:53:49 UTC

I've tagged this post in the hope someone can provide a good answer, because that's a great question. In case you don't have it, the relevant section of the US Code is quoted here, but that's just the code itself. I don't know what part of the US Code details enforcement and reporting procedures. (I think I've seen fics in which the military member in question does request a meeting with a superior officer in order to report the behavior/activity, but I don't remember where and don't know if that's based on real life procedures, unfortunately ....) (Edited for HTML fail, sorry!)

Adding: The anonymous comment below reminds me of the real-life case of Air Force Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, whose history could be of use to you. (I can't find anything that says how the case against him developed, though.) More specifically, I tried Google to check sg_mil_beta and military_beta; I didn't find anything directly applicable, but you might find more success by crossposting to one or both of those.

sentientcitizen August 16 2009, 02:43:45 UTC

I've looked at the code a bit, but I'll give it a detailed reading before I try writing the fic - thank-you for the link. Requesting the meeting does seems to make the most sense, but then, much of what the military does doesn't make any sense to me at all (see: DADT, heh) so I'm leery about just going on instinct in this situation.

I'll check out Lt. Col. Fehrenbach - I'd never heard of him before.

I cross-posted to sg_mil_beta and military_beta; thank-you for the idea! If I get a relevant response at either of them, I'll edit my original post to include it, for other people to reference.

soleta August 15 2009, 22:12:02 UTC

apparently it depends, according to this: 30toseoul, whose post is a recount of her (very limited) experience of DADT and her experience with homosexuality in the military (lots more); if you're actually looking for the procedures, I'm not sure where to find them, but the Uniform Code of Military Justice covers trials and punishments in general, and I did see sodomy when I scrolled through the list; as for the rest of it, I'm just not sure. sorry!

(it may help to search for it by other names; the law itself is 10 U.S.C. § 654, for example.)

sentientcitizen August 16 2009, 02:44:44 UTC

30toseoul's post is interesting reading; thank-you for the link! I'll also check out the Unifrom Code of Military Justice, see what I can find there. It might not directly answer the question, but it could still be usefull. I appreciate your help.

anonymous August 15 2009, 23:00:02 UTC

I think an honorable person would choose to look the other way, but since I'm assuming you're asking for fic purposes, you want the answer that works for your plot. I'm guessing you have some leeway there, because what's written in such a document and what actually happens in the real world often differ. If you want to specifically make trouble for your characters, though, whoever goes to General Hammond is going to have to go by the book pretty closely and with a fair amount of persistence, or else he's going to use his discretion to look the other way, because official policy or not, the safety of the planet is a little more important than someone's homophobia, and the people at the SGC are pretty damn valuable.

sentientcitizen August 16 2009, 02:49:00 UTC

I agree with you completly re: the saftey of the planet being more important that homophobia to the SCG. I do intend to have General Hammond look the other way - the prompt I'm working off of is "conversation", and the idea is for the fic to basically be General Hammond explaining that he doesn't know anything about officer so-and-so's sexual preferences, nosiree, not a thing, and why he intends to have it stay that way. (...hopefully it'll be a more interesting story than I just made it sound, but, well, there you go.) I just need to know how the by-the-books Airman would go about things, and if meeting with Hammond is simpley the logical next step, or if getting the two of them in a room to discuss is requires me to have Hammond intercepting the Airman's mail or something. *grin*

michelel72 August 12 2010, 23:49:53 UTC

I know this is late, random, and not exactly on point, but I thought I'd record it here in case anyone else needs the info for the latter parts of the process.

The news show I'm watching at the moment (The Rachel Maddow Show of Wednesday 11 August 2010), in a segment introducing additional information about Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, offers this summary for what happens once the accusation is reported formally: Here's the way it works now if you are a US Air Force pilot getting fired by your Commander in Chief, Barack Obama, from the military under the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. Here's how it works: Whether somebody outs you or you out yourself, whether the accusation is true or not, your case goes to a review board. Now the review board makes a recommendation on whether or not you should be fired; and if you are a particularly high-ranking person being fired from the military by Barack Obama because you are gay, that recommendation will go to - if you're in the Air Force - it will go to the Office of the Secretary of the Air ( ... )