Perez Hilton Falsely States “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Discharges Have Stopped

Everyone makes mistakes, but when reportedly two million people visit your site each month and with twelve million hits each month, (give or take,) you have a heightened responsibility to get basic facts right — especially those that could harm someone’s future.

Friday, in, “Supreme Court Rules DADT Stays In Place, While Lower Court Rules Unconstitutional,” Perez Hilton wrote, “Considering the Pentagon stopped discharging gay and lesbian members of the military, we don’t see the problem.”

This is false. Dangerously false.

While the Pentagon has created a more stringent and formal process of discharging gay and lesbian servicemembers, the military has not stopped investigations or discharges of gay and lesbian servicemembers.

In fact, SLDN, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network has repeatedly issued warnings to LGBT servicemembers to not come out. In, “Attention Service Members: DADT is Still in Effect,” Aaron Tax, SLDN’s Legal Director says, “Earlier this year, DoD made changes to how “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is implemented – those changes remain in effect.”

Tax adds, “Service members can and still will be investigated, they will continue to be discharged, and those considering joining may still be barred from joining if they were previously discharged under DADT or if the person joining makes his or her sexual orientation known to a recruiter.”

So, as you can see, Perez Hilton’s error is a dangerous error to the millions of people who read his blog, and to the untold millions more who get his “information” second-hand.

Also dangerous is that this error gives the military and the government unwarranted cover. If our opponents mistakenly think that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is no longer in effect, they are more apt to ignore our pleas and efforts to repeal this unconstitutional law.

This is by no means Hilton’s first falsehood. Let’s not forget that in 2007, “Hilton announced the death of Cuban President Fidel Castro, and claimed that he was the first media outlet in the world to break the news.” We’re still waiting.

Perez: You must write a retraction, and tell all LGBT servicemembers it is not “safe” to come out. Tell them they can still be discharged for being LGBT. Tell them you were wrong. Tell them they need to arm themselves with the correct information before making that decision.

And then, stop being so cavalier with information.

Everyone makes mistakes, and the case of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” certainly is a challenging one to get “straight,” but anyone who is reportedly worth millions can afford to check their facts.

Editorial note:
After several attempts of contacting Hilton, via Twitter and email, Hilton removed the offending and false statement (above,) but did NOT publish a retraction or apology. Again, Hilton has gotten away with publishing dangerous falsehoods.

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