Joel Levin

I was in the Air Force from 1986-1990. There was a small group of gays and lesbians at the Air Station I was assigned to. Most of them were friends of mine. The AFOSI (Air Force Office of Special Investigations) ran a sting operation to bust the gays. One of them was undercover, pretending to be gay. One night, he told me he was "gay" and asked me if I was interested in a relationship. I told him I wasn't, but I could introduce him to some gay friends of mine. The next day, I was called into the OSI and asked to write a sworn testimony against my friends. I refused to do it. Prior to that point, I was an orderly room clerk (a status position for my AFSC), I sat on the board for Airman of the Quarter boards, etc. I was about to be fast-tracked to get my star (the promotion from Senior Airman to Buck Sergeant). Then all hell happened. I started getting written up for typos. I failed a room inspection for having dust on my service cap. Any little mistake was a write-up. In the Air Force, the lowest punishment is a letter of counseling. Three LOCs and you can get a Letter of Reprimand. Three Letters of Reprimand, you can get an Article 15, and kicked out. Within 2 months, I was getting an Article 15 and kicked out. I lost my GI Bill, which would have paid for my college. All because I wouldn't testify against people for being gay. And I wouldn't do that because it would have been far worse for them. They literally could have gone to Leavenworth. When people say that we haven't made progress in the last few decades, that's because they don't know how much things were different then.