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| Jasmine Crunk, left, and Dawn Dauridge hold
protest during the final stop of the Soulforce Equality Ride outside
the main gate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.,
Wednesday, April 26, 2006. Twenty-one gay-rights activists
were arrested Wednesday after staging a protest against the
Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on the grounds of the U.S.
Military Academy. (AP Photo/Keith Ferris) |
Activists visit West
Point on gay policy
By Michael Virtanen,
by AP from boston.com on the Web, April 26, 2006
WEST POINT, N.Y. --Twenty-one
gay rights activists were detained at the U.S. Military Academy and issued
federal citations Wednesday while protesting the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't
tell" policy.
The academy was their last stop on a 20-stop, cross-country tour of conservative
Christian and military colleges that protest organizers say discriminate against
gay, bisexual and transgendered people.
Members of the protest group Soulforce Equality Riders have faced charges for
protests at five of the campuses. Ten were handcuffed and charged with
disorderly conduct after demonstrating April 14 at the U.S. Air Force Academy in
Colorado Springs, Colo.
On Wednesday, about 50 protesters arrived on buses at the gate that separates
the storied U.S. Military Academy from the village of Highland Falls. The
21 detained had entered campus grounds and were warned they risked federal
charges if they continued to try to protest inside the post.
After several trips through the gate, they were cited by military police for
entry to military property for unlawful purposes, a misdemeanor. Federal
law prohibits protests on military installations.
"I felt it was definitely something I should be doing," said protester Chad
Grandy, 20, of Mount Pleasant, Mich., who was among those ticketed. "To
see government-sanctioned discrimination, it really bothers me."
The "don't ask, don't tell" policy for the U.S. military and its service
academies, set by Congress and signed by President Clinton, allows gays to serve
in the armed forces if they abstain from homosexual activity and do not disclose
their sexual orientation
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