Stars and Stripes, the daily newspaper for the U.S. military community overseas, has a fascinating article on the establishment of a Gay-Straight Alliance club at Robert D. Edgren High School, situated at Misawa Air Base in Japan and part of the Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Pacific. Despite some controversy and an investigation of the Department of Defense Education Activity’s procedures for non-curricular clubs, the club now has the green light to go ahead with its activities. The article reports there is also a GSA at Gen. H.H. Arnold High School in Wiesbaden, Germany, part of DODDS-Europe.
The GSA’s are not just for LGBT students, but also for allies and those with questions about sexuality, the article reports. I’ve also always seen them as places where LGBT teens and the children of LGBT parents (not mutually exclusive groups) can work together on issues of mutual concern. On a military base, however, it is unclear whether the children of LGBT parents would want to join a GSA at the risk of outing their parents. This is yet another restriction on the lives of such children, as I discussed further in my recent article (and our vlog) about a lesbian mom in the military. I’m not sure what would be harder: being an LGBT teen with a parent or parents in the military, or being the child of an LGBT servicemember (or both). This is in reality a silly question: each situation has its own issues and hardships stemming from anti-LGBT regulations. None of the children impacted have an easy time of it.
Stars and Stripes is editorially independent, but it is part of the American Forces Information Service, and authorized by the Department of Defense. The fact that GSA’s are starting to appear at DoD schools, and the fact that Stars and Stripes covered them, makes me think the repeal of DADT stands a chance, particularly if we can show that anti-LGBT regulations not only do nothing to maintain unit morale and cohesiveness (see, for example, the case of Sgt. Darren Manzella), but also harm servicemembers’ children, LGBT and not, in many ways.