Air Force Sergeant Thrown Out for Being Gay

Staff Sergeant Jene Newsome was forced out of the military today after nine years of service, apparently because some police officers, upset over her lack of cooperation in a case involving her wife, notified the Air Force that she was gay.

Last November, police went to staff sergeant Jene' Newsome's Rapid City home to serve an out of state warrant on her wife, Cheryl Hutson. In the process, they noticed an Iowa marriage certificate lying on a table, showing the two women were married.

Despite the fact the marriage had nothing to do with the arrest, officer Jeremy Stauffacher and detective Tom Garinger sent that information to the Air Force, causing the service to discharge Newsome for violating the don't ask-don't tell policy on gay military people.

Regardless of what you think about the impact of permitting open homosexuality in the military, in my opinion there is absolutely no reasonable justification for this action. It is simply wrong. Newsome didn't flout the ban. She served for nine years, and in all that time her sexual orientation was apparently not an issue. But because of this situation, the Air Force throws her out, ends her career and completely disrupts her entire life. That's quite a punishment for doing nothing wrong.