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Fleeing Death Threats And Harassment, Lesbian Soldier Seeks Asylum in Canada

09/09/09-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
Private Bethany Smith is hoping that she will be granted asylum in Canada after fleeing there to avoid persecution in the Army for being a lesbian. According to Pte Smith and her lawyer, Jamie Liew, Pte Smith was subject to harassment and death threats inside the military for her sexual orientation. Instead of following the law, which would have been to discharge Pte Smith from the military her superiors intended to send her to Afghanistan.

Pte Smith believes that she will face harsher punishments than a straight soldier due to rampant homophobia that remains within the US military justice system.

Pte Smith served at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, where another gay soldier was beaten to death with a baseball bat in 1999. While there, another soldier spotted her holding hands with another woman while out shopping at a mall. Following that incident, she received an increased work load, derogatory notes and a death threat left at her dormitory, and was told that they would work out the discharge paperwork after she returned from Afghanistan.

Pte Smith is asking for refugee status from the Canadian Federal Courts on these grounds. Whether or not her appeal to them will result in her being granted that status is murky at best, and unlikely at worst. The lawyer representing the government, Brian Harvey, questioned why she did not mention the harassment when she asked for her discharge. Unfortunately, if they were not going to follow the law regarding her discharge on grounds of being lesbian, then they were unlikely to put an end to the harassment.

In a ruling two years ago, the Federal Court of Appeals noted that most deserters simply get a less-than-honorable discharge. According to Smith, she fled the military rather than going to Afghanistan largely because she was more afraid of the people who were suppose to be guarding her back than the insurgents. Smith, who is 21, fled to Canada in 2007.