WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- A Washington-based gay rights group says the the number of U.S. military discharges for being gay rose 10 percent last year.
New data obtained by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network found that dismissals increased from 668 in 2004 to 742 in 2005, The New York Times said.
The report said the sharpest increase in "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" dismissals
occurred at Fort Campbell, Ky., where soldier Barry Winchell was killed in 1999 by fellow soldiers who believed Winchell was gay.
"No American cares if the person who thwarts a plot to blow up an airplane is gay," said C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of SLDN, in a release. "We care that our nation is secure."
Overall, gay discharges have decreased nearly 40 percent since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The 2005 dismissals represent the first annual increase since the beginning of the war on terror, the group said.
"Those who serve our country deserve respect and honor, not pink slips and dismissals," said Osburn.
