By Ariela Migdal, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 12:33pm
Until today, official United States policy banned all women from being assigned to ground combat units. The policy was military-wide and covered our whole gender – no exceptions for women who were fast, strong, excellent marksmen, good at keeping calm under fire, or able to take and give directions in a high-octane situation. It was one of the last remaining relics of official government exclusion of women.
Today we're launching a weeklong campaign called "Stop Cyber Spying Week" to draw attention to the massive civil liberties problems in H.R. 3523, better known as CISPA.
As it stands now, the military provides health insurance for members of the Armed Forces and their families but, by federal statute, the Department of Defense is barred from providing coverage for abortion care except where a pregnant woman's life is endangered. Despite the fact that other federal bans on abortion coverage provide an exception for cases of rape and incest, the military does not.
You can play "Taps" tomorrow for the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that prevented gay service members from serving openly.
The policy itself will be consigned to the dustbin of history when its repeal takes effect Tuesday. However, its legacy will still be felt by service members honorably discharged during the 18 years DADT was in place.
Richard Collins was one of them. Collins was a decorated Air Force staff sergeant, who was spotted kissing his boyfriend off-base and not in uniform. Collins, who served for nine years, was honorably discharged. But a Pentagon policy dictated that service members booted out of the military for "homosexuality," only receive half of the separation pay they would be entitled to.
