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Top Ten Ranked West Point Cadet Resigns Over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

Posted by: Natasia Rose on August 10, 2010.

08/10/2010- by Natasia Langfelder

Yesterday morning, Katherine Miller was on track to graduate with honors from West Point, ranking 9th out of 1,157 cadets in her class.

Miller maintained a GPA of 3.829, was named to the Distinguished Dean’s List for all the semesters she was at West Point, was designated as a Distinguished Cadet, was awarded the West Point Superintendent’s Award for Excellence and was inducted into the Golden Key International Honors Society.

Miller, as well, graduated from the U.S. Army Airborne School and trained with an aviation unit at the National Training Center (NTC) in Ft. Irwin, CA.

Katie Miller was in every aspect, the stuff Generals are made of.

Miller is also a lesbian.

By yesterday afternoon, Katie Miller had resigned from West Point saying she cannot reconcile the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy with her desire to live an open , honest life and maintain her integrity.

Miller writes in her resignation letter:

… I have created a heterosexual dating history to recite to fellow cadets when they inquire. I have endured unwanted approaches by male cadets for fear of being accused as a lesbian by rejecting or reporting these events. I have been coerced into ignoring derogatory comments towards homosexuals for fear of being alienated for my viewpoint.

In short, I have lied to my classmates and compromised my integrity and my identity by adhering to existing military policy.

While at the academy, I have made a deliberate effort to develop myself academically, physically, and militarily, but in terms of holistic personal growth I have reached a plateau. I am unwilling to suppress an entire portion of my identity any longer because it has taken a significant personal, mental, and social toll on me and detrimentally affected my professional development. I have experienced a relentless cognitive dissonance by attempting to adhere to §654 [colloquially known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”] and retain my integrity, and I am retrospectively convinced that I am unable to live up to the Army Values as long as the policy remains in place.

Miller also indicated her desire to still become an Army Officer should the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy be removed, and gay and lesbian’s be allowed to serve freely.

In a press release issued by Knights Out, an association of LGBT alumni of West Point, they laud Miller’s many accomplishments, such as her prowess on physical fitness tests and her blogging, one entry of which was printed by the Washington Post.

Knights Out also gives an update on what Miller’s future will look like now that she is no longer at West Point:

Miller will be transferring to Yale University this fall on a Point Foundation Scholarship.

“This is a loss to the Academy and to the Army,” said Becky Kanis, West Point ’91. Kanis, Chair of Knights Out, and a former Captain and company commander added, “We keep losing talented people needlessly while we wait for the Pentagon’s ‘review.’

Miller has been blogging anonymously about lesbian culture at West Point at velvetparkmedia.com as “Private Second Class Citizen.”