Video: Schofield Soldier Discharged For Being Gay ...

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Schofield Soldier Released After Revealing He's Gay
Sergeant Says 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Is Discriminatory

POSTED: 5:43 pm HST November 22, 2005
UPDATED: 10:11 am HST November 23, 2005

VIDEO HERE: http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/news/5386854/detail.html

NPR INTERVIEW HERE: http://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/blair/112405.mp3


HONOLULU -- A former Schofield Barracks Army sergeant is the latest casualty of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. The military released the 28-year-old from service last month after he told his commander he was gay.

Sean Smith got on an airplane to St. Louis Tuesday for Thanksgiving with his family. As the son of two Army soldiers he knows when he sits down to dinner on Thursday he'll have some explaining to do.

Smith said it took going to Afghanistan to put things in clear focus. He was a linguist with the 125th Battalion's military intelligence group.

He had one more year to serve, but after being decorated for his service he felt he had to speak up against what he says is the harassment of gays in the military.

"It wasn't for my safety so much as it was for me to speak up and take a stand for what I witnessed," Smith said.

Smith said he told his father this summer just before he told his commander, knowing he'd be kicked out.

Smith believes the military's homosexual policy is discriminatory and doesn't need to be there, particularly at a time when the country can least afford it.

He said he is proud of his three and a half years of work. He fought back when the military tried to give him something less than an honorable discharge.

"'One day we are honoring you with these medals' and the next day saying, 'You didn't serve honorably.' So, personally it was an insult," he said.

While his mother knew his secret, he recalled the day when he phoned her while at a Pakistani border.

"I was trying to let off some steam and it occurred to me I had to check what I was saying because someone might hear," Smith said. "It just seemed so wrong that people over there who were giving up their lives sand sacrificing so much would feel so oppressed."

Smith said he hopes to become an attorney, inspired by civil rights law, working to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

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