Thursday, August 22, 2013
USAF Airman Punished for Opposing Gay Marriage Files Complaint
An airman who was relieved of his duties after he told his commanding officer that he could not support gay marriage has filed a formal complaint with the military alleging he is the victim of religious discrimination.
Senior Master Sgt. Phillip Monk, a 19-year veteran of the Air Force was punished after he disagreed with his commander when she wanted to severely reprimand an instructor who had expressed religious objections to homosexuality.
“I was relieved of my position because I don’t agree with my commander’s position on gay marriage,” Senior Master Sgt. Phillip Monk told Fox News. “We’ve been told that if you publicly say that homosexuality is wrong, you are in violation of Air Force policy.”
The Liberty Institute filed a formal complaint against Major Elisa Valenzuela on behalf of the Christian airman.
"Major Valenzuela asked SMSgt. Monk if he could agree with her belief that openly voicing a religious or moral opposition to same-sex marriage is discrimination," the official complaint reads. "Because of SMSgt. Monk's sincerely held religious belief, he could not agree with the major. As a direct result, Major Valenzuela immediately relieved SMSgt. Monk from his First Sergeant duties and reassigned him to a different unit."
Monk was also banned from returning to his unit's building and required special permission to retrieve his personal belongings.
Liberty Institute attorney Michael Berry said the major's actions are a violation of the law.
"Your conduct constitutes unlawful discrimination," Berry wrote in a letter to the major. "According to Department of Defense Directive 1020.02, unlawful discrimination against individuals or groups based on religion is contrary to good order and discipline, counterproductive to combat readiness and mission accomplishment, and shall not be condoned."
Monk has served as a first sergeant at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio since 2011. He recently returned from a deployment and discovered he had a new commander – an open lesbian.
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9 comments:
Another example of leftist "tolerance"?
So, discrimination should be allowed if it's a religious opinion but not allowed if it's anti-religion? Once again, religion is used as a cover for bigotry and discrimination, but the religious are the first to bleat if their wish to demean fellow citizens isn't "respected" as their right to religious tolerance, but f-off to everyone else's equivalent rights, who may or may not belong to their particular religion. What hypocracy, as well as lack of basic logic.
2:06 - okay please explain (if you can without crude references to parts of my personal anatomy), how my point is "exactly backwards", or are you using the excuse that "two wrongs CAN make a right" or that one demeaning insult can trump another.
Everyone has a right to oppose homosexual behavior; it is not sacred.
nonymous 2:00,
If you read the whole story, you would know that you are misrepresenting the actions involved in this case. SMsgt. Monk was defending the rights of another airman who had said he did not believe in gay marriage, but would not let his beliefs affect how he trained anyone.
The openly gay commander asked Monk to agree with her that the airman was acting in a discriminatory way, and Monk did not agree with that assessment. One has the right of free speech, even in the military.
However, because Monk was not 'on the same page' as the commander, he was disciplined.
Know the whole story before you start preaching your bigotry against religion. The intolerance was clearly coming from the commander, not Monk and the Airman.
As opposed to a closed lesbian?
4:44 - Who starts the bigotry in the first place? It's the religious who use their religion as an excuse to demean and insult fellow citizens who happen to be homosexual. Anything from the Gay side is only in retaliation. Or do you think it was the Gays who first started preaching that Christianity and Islam is evil and worthy of an eternity in Hell!? Your comment is just an attempt to muddy the waters with "he said", "she said"!
It has never seemed that homosexuals are particularly gay which means merry and happy they rather seem to be mostly morose and anti-social.
Well, it's not surprising that many "gays" seem morose when they have always had to live in an anti-gay society, some more anti-gay than others (which makes the accusation of gays being anti-social as somewhat ironic!)
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