From The Advocate:
British Army Apologizes to Harassed Lesbian Solider
The British Ministry of Defense apologized to a lesbian soldier who claimed that a male sergeant sexually harassed her, BBC News reports. Lance Bombadier Kerry Fletcher, won a lawsuit filed in 2007 against the ministry.
Fletcher said that the staff sergeant accused of the harassment and other male colleagues tried to sabotage her career because she turned down his advances. He pestered her for sex and sent her inappropriate text messages, she says.
Fletcher, 32, was a 10-year veteran who retired from the Army in February.
In addition to the apology, she is seeking £400,000 ($714,000) in damages. She will be notified how much of the damages she will receive within the next four weeks. (Michelle Garcia, The Advocate)
In the US, this couldn’t possibly happen. As soon as the lesbian filed suit, it would be an admission of homosexuality and she would be legally removed from the armed forces under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the Army would forget she ever existed and suppress news of the harassment under the catch-all bullshit term of National Security.
Sigh.
What was her major malfunction? If she was a soldier she was presumably trained to massacre innocent civilians, yet was a sensitive little flower who couldn’t deal with a retarded sergeant? How would she deal with someone sending inappropriate bullets her way?
What the hell did she expect in the fucking military? Maybe I could go mince around in the army for a couple of years until someone calls me a fag then retire on the payout.
She sounds like a gold-digger to me.
Comment by Overstroming — 25 September 2008 @ 3:33 am
I don’t even know how to respond to your level of stupidity, Overstroming.
Comment by Rev. Reed Braden — 25 September 2008 @ 3:43 am
Heh, surely you aren’t speechless, Rev?
On mature reflection my hilarious yet erudite comment was actually way way off topic and indeed rather stupid.
Need more sleep and less caffiene.
Sexual discrimination in the workplace is unacceptable and should of course be punished. The military environment just seems different. A vast number of Irish soldiers successfully sued the army for hearing loss caused by exposure to loud bangs and explosions. it’s in the context of the PC, nanny-state, cotton wool health and safety regulations being applied to hired killers that I made my remark.
Apologies for setting off your stupidity detector.
Comment by Overstroming — 25 September 2008 @ 4:44 am
There’s a big difference in the stupidity of signing up to shoot a gun and then suing because the gun was too loud and the seriousness of signing up to shoot a gun and suing because men were trying to force their dicks into your body just to taunt you for your sexual orientation. In case you don’t see the difference, the former involves suing an organisation for repercussions of a choice that the defendant himself made. The latter is sexual harassment which is not appropriate in any context, especially in a military context where group cohesion and trust is vital to the safety of the entire nation.
Comment by Rev. Reed Braden — 25 September 2008 @ 4:56 am
It’s things like this which really bring out the difference between cultures in countries which to an outsider look relatively similar. There’s a saying that a country’s army sums up the best and worst parts of that country’s culture and this seems to be further proof of it.
UK: Male soldiers harass lesbian soldier, made to apologise.
US: Male soldiers harass lesbian soldier, brass realise that she’s lesbian and kicks her out
Aus: Male soldiers shrug, half-jokingly say “hot”, and get on with life.
(True, I’m oversimplifying it a bit. Though that last one is also a true story.)
Comment by cheesemaster — 25 September 2008 @ 9:19 am
And as for Overstroming, I laughed at the Full Metal Jacket reference and I hope the rest is a joke as well. Neither Britain nor most other civilised countries train their soldiers “to massacre innocent civilians”. Sure, I disagree with her seeking a payout – especially one that large – but she was well within her rights either in civilian life or in the military setting to ask for an apology after the bloke acted like such an utter arsehole to her. Not to mention that if she was being a gold digger, as you said, she probably wouldn’t have been in the army a whole decade.
Comment by cheesemaster — 25 September 2008 @ 9:25 am
Hey, no harassing EEKy soldiers!
Comment by Diaphanus — 27 September 2008 @ 1:44 am
sexual harrassment is never right but they its hard to know whether it was severe or not from this post but hell I sure am glad I live in the UK :)
Comment by V — 28 September 2008 @ 4:19 pm