About That Air Force Sergeant…

For about a month all of Teabagistan has been up in arms about an Air Force sergeant who claims that his lesbian commander relieved him of duty because he “didn’t agree with her position on gay marriage.” Today retired Lt. Gen. William Boykin, who now works for the Family Research Council, sent out an update via press release:

Today, I learned that the Air Force chain of command at Lackland Air Force Base (San Antonio, TX) has read Senior Master Sergeant Phillip Monk his Miranda rights. This is a serious matter. When a member of the armed forces is Mirandized it is a strong indication that those officials believe there has been a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

As you may recall, Sgt. Monk was relieved of his duties on June 25th when he refused to agree with his openly lesbian commanding officer, Maj. Elisa Valenzuela, that a subordinate’s expression of opposition to same-sex marriage constituted discrimination. Later, on August 20th Sgt. Monk filed a petition for redress with Valenzuela under the UCMJ (Article 138).

As I understand it, Sgt Monk is now under investigation for making false official statements (UCMJ 107) for stating publicly and to the press that he believed he was being discriminated against due to his Christian beliefs. These are not even official statements, friends. These are trumped up charges. This investigation is nothing more than intimidation. The Air Force is telling Christian service members that if you are a target of religious discrimination, you must remain silent about it or risk court martial.

We’re guessing that there’s a lot more to this story than Boykin is telling us.