"Between 1998 and 2004, the military discharged 20 Arabic and six Farsi speakers" for being gay and not hiding it.

That's loathesome, but I think the fact that:

In the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2004, 543 Arabic linguists and 166 Farsi linguists graduated from their 63-week courses, according to the DLI. That was up from 377 and 139, respectively, in the previous year, reflecting the military's increased need for translators in Iraq.

Kind of undercuts Nathaniel Frank's claim that "It used to be this was seen as a gay rights issue, but now it's clearly a national security issue."

The article says he's a senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California at Santa Barbara ... they have a whole Center for that?

(via QueerDay)

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