Tanya Biank makes a compelling case that without greater attention to troops' families, re-enlistment and morale will decline. But some military families are entirely cut off from the formal support services they need, even when a loved one is at war.
An estimated 65,000 American troops are gay or lesbian, and are forbidden from revealing their sexual orientation. As a result, their partners and families are unable to seek the support they deserve and to offer the kinds of home-front volunteer services that Ms. Biank describes as essential to the larger military mission.
Imagine watching your loved one go to war and being denied access to crucial information, including his condition, return dates or even whether he is dead or alive. If keeping military families happy is vital to maintaining enlistment and morale, why on earth is this policy still in effect?
Nathaniel Frank
Brooklyn, March 15, 2006
The writer is a senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, University of California, Santa Barbara.
An estimated 65,000 American troops are gay or lesbian, and are forbidden from revealing their sexual orientation. As a result, their partners and families are unable to seek the support they deserve and to offer the kinds of home-front volunteer services that Ms. Biank describes as essential to the larger military mission.
Imagine watching your loved one go to war and being denied access to crucial information, including his condition, return dates or even whether he is dead or alive. If keeping military families happy is vital to maintaining enlistment and morale, why on earth is this policy still in effect?
Nathaniel Frank
Brooklyn, March 15, 2006
The writer is a senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, University of California, Santa Barbara.
