Date: January 13, 2005
Press Contact: Aaron Belkin, Director Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military 805-893-5664

SANTA BARBARA, CA, January 13, 2005 - The New Republic (click here for PDF version of the article) reported this morning that between 1998 and 2004, the military discharged 20 Arabic and six Farsi language speakers under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The new figures, which were obtained from the Pentagon by Congressman Marty Meehan and CSSMM, update prior reports from 2002, when the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and the New Republic first reported that Arabic language speakers had been discharged for homosexuality under "don't ask, don't tell." Some previous reports indicated that seven linguists had been fired, while others put the total at nine.

The Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military is an official research unit of the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Center is governed by a distinguished board of advisors including the Honorable Lawrence J. Korb of the Council on Foreign Relations, Honorable Coit Blacker of Stanford University and Professor Janet Halley of Harvard Law School. Its mission is to promote the study of gays, lesbians, and other sexual minorities in the armed forces.

Click here to see the new data. Click here to see an explanation of the data. Click here for media coverage of the story.