Living under the confines of DADT
Retired Maj. Gen. Tammy Smith served for 35 years before, during and after the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy. She shares her journey as the special guest on this week’s episode of The American Legion Tango Alpha Lima podcast.
Smith originally joined the Army to get a college education but made it a career. “I loved the values, I loved the people,” she said. “We had a sense of purpose that was the same no matter who you were.”
Soon after joining the Army, Smith learned that she was attracted to women.
“I lived my life authentically as me, but I did it top secret,” she recalls. “I hid my life from my coworkers, my peers. I did that for 25 years. I was under a policy, or a law, that said my being identified as homosexual or lesbian was on face value an affront to military service.”
DADT was lifted in 2011 while Smith was in Afghanistan. “The weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders. I didn’t come out to anybody on that day,” she said. “I just felt safer.”
Smith and her wife, Tracy, have a simple phrase that makes clear their connection to the military. “We are a military family that happens to be gay, not a gay family that happens to be military,” she says. “That character of who you are in the end, is what people will see.”
Other topics on this episode include military-to-civilian transition, moral injury and more. She also talked about how veterans who were kicked out of the military due to DADT still face struggles in their post-service life.
“Thousands and thousands of people were damaged in this way because their official paperwork has identified them as homosexual,” said Smith, a member of The American Legion. “And many of them carry shame even though so many things have changed since then. A lot of these folks are now getting up in age — 60s, 70s, 80s — and still have this unresolved thing. But now the Department of Defense has realized that being homosexual should not result in anything other than an honorable discharge.”
These individuals can now have that paperwork reviewed by American Legion service officers who can do a formal request for an upgrade, she said.
Also, co-hosts Stacy Pearsall, Joe Worley and Adam Marr:
• Talk about a deadly unintended consequence of a documentary about Afghanistan.
• Discuss George Washington’s support of a Revolutionary War general who was believed to be America’s first openly gay flag officer.
• Highlight the 74th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, which is June 25.
Check out this week’s episode, which is among more than 250 Tango Alpha Lima podcasts available in both audio and video formats here. You can also download episodes on Apple Podcasts, Google Play or other major podcast-hosting sites. The video version is available at the Legion’s YouTube channel.