Stephen Timothy May (born November 29, 1971) is an American politician who served in the Arizona House of Representatives. He was openly gay when he ran for and served in the legislature. He was nevertheless recalled to active duty in the military. He came to national attention in 1999 when the U.S. Army attempted to discharge him from the United States Army Reserve under the gay-exclusionary law known as "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT).
May was born on November 29, 1971, [1] and grew up in a Mormon household in Phoenix, Arizona, in the district he later represented in the state legislature. He is an Eagle Scout. He entered the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1989 at the age of 17 at Claremont McKenna College and received his commission as a U.S. Army officer in 1993. He served for two and a half years at Fort Riley, Kansas. His assignments included managing the integration of women into an all-male platoon. He left the Army with an honorable discharge in 1995. [2] May ran unsuccessfully for the House in 1996 before winning a seat in 1998, as a Republican. He ran as an openly gay man and had secured the endorsement of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, a political action committee dedicated to helping elect openly LGBT candidates to public office. [3] He and his family have engaged in protracted lawsuits about their competing business interests. [4]
On February 3, 1999, May spoke to a committee of the Arizona House about pending legislation that would prevent local jurisdictions from providing benefits to the domestic partners of their employees. He said: [2]
I know many of you expected me to sit quietly in my office, but I cannot sit quietly in my office when another member attacks my family and attempts to steal my freedom. And furthermore if this legislature intends to take my gay tax dollars, which work just as well as your straight tax dollars, then treat me fairly under the law.
A few weeks later, as the Kosovo crisis was developing, he was recalled by the Army Reserves, where he attained the rank of First Lieutenant. [5] He returned to duty in April and in May a local magazine reported on him under the headline "Gay Right Wing Mormon Steve May is a Walking Talking Contradiction". [2] In July the Army notified him that he was under investigation for homosexuality. An Army spokesman commented in August: "I don't think that the individual has been, shall we say, keeping this under wraps, as to his sexual orientation." [6] In March 2000, the Army asked him to resign and he refused. [2] On September 17, 2000, an Army panel recommended May be given an honorable discharge under DADT. [5] [7] May fought to remain in service and in January 2001 the Army terminated its discharge proceedings. May received an honorable discharge in May 2001 at the scheduled conclusion of his term of service. [2] [8]
During his time in office, May served as the chairman of the House Ways and Means committee and was instrumental in getting Arizona's sodomy law repealed. [9] In June 2000, May filed suit against the state of Arizona after receiving a parking ticket that included a mandatory 10% surcharge to be paid into a state fund, enacted by referendum in 1998, to provide subsidies to candidates for public office who agreed to certain campaign finance restrictions. May refused to pay the surcharge, claiming it was compelled political speech and an infringement of his rights under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and also provisions of the Arizona Constitution. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that the surcharge did not violate May's rights. [10]
In 2002, May lost his bid for re-election facing two fellow incumbents who were set to run against each other following redistricting pursuant to the 2000 United States Census, by 58 votes. [11] Following the loss, May served as Chief Operating Officer of Wisdom Natural Brands, [12] until retiring in 2008. When Arizona Representative John Shadegg announced his retirement in 2008 May announced plans to run for the seat, [13] but withdrew from the race when Shadegg announced he would seek another term after all. [14]
In 2010, May joined the race for Arizona's 17th District House seat as a write-in candidate. [15] In August, May was one of several Republicans named in a complaint filed by the Arizona Democratic Party, alleging that he conspired to recruit Mill Avenue street people to run as Green Party write-in "sham" candidates to pull votes from Democrats. May acknowledges that he recruited candidates but denies any conspiracy or wrongdoing. [16] [17] District court judge David G. Campbell denied a request from the state Green Party to remove the candidates from the ballot. [18] Following the revelation of a 2009 guilty plea to a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol, for which May served ten days in jail and received three years of probation, [19] May dropped out of the race. [20]
"Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on military service of non-heterosexual people. Instituted during the Clinton administration, the policy was issued under Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 on December 21, 1993, and was in effect from February 28, 1994, until September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. This relaxation of legal restrictions on service by gays and lesbians in the armed forces was mandated by Public Law 103–160, which was signed November 30, 1993. The policy prohibited people who "demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the armed forces of the United States, because their presence "would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability".
John Barden Shadegg is an American politician and former U.S. representative for Arizona's 3rd congressional district, serving from 1995 until 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party.
McVeigh v. Cohen was a 1998 lawsuit in U.S. federal court in which a member of the U.S. Armed Forces challenged the military's application of its "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy, which established guidelines for service by gays and lesbians in the U.S. military. The U.S. Navy sought to discharge Timothy R. McVeigh for declaring his homosexuality, which he had allegedly done via anonymous Internet posts. McVeigh's suit denied he had made such a declaration and charged the Navy with failure to adhere to its own DADT policy and, in the course of investigating him, while violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act by collecting his private online communications.
The 2008 congressional elections in Arizona were held on November 4, 2008, to determine who would represent the state of Arizona in the United States House of Representatives, coinciding with the presidential election. Representatives are elected for two-year terms; those elected would serve in the 111th Congress from January 4, 2009, until January 3, 2011.
Darren Manzella was a United States Army Sergeant, Army medic and gay activist from Portland, New York, who was discharged under the Don't ask, don't tell policy. Manzella served in Iraq and Kuwait, and was stationed in Fort Hood, Texas.
The 2010 congressional elections in Arizona were held on November 2, 2010, to determine who would represent the state of Arizona in the United States House of Representatives. Arizona had eight seats in the House, apportioned according to the 2000 United States census. Representatives were elected for two-year terms; those elected were to serve in the 112th Congress from January 3, 2011 until January 3, 2013.
Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America is an American 2009 political book by Nathaniel Frank that argues that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy banning openly gay servicemen and women from the United States armed forces weakened military and national security. According to Frank, 12,000 people — 800 of whom had previously been deemed "mission critical" by the U.S. government — were discharged from the military between 1993 and 2008, based on policies that Frank describes as "rooted in denial, and deception, and repression."
The United States Navy dog handler hazing scandal was a pattern of misconduct engaged in by members of the United States Navy at Naval Support Activity Bahrain between 2004 and 2006. Naval investigators documented nearly 100 incidents of abuse committed against several members of a Military Working Dog (MWD) unit stationed at the United States military base at Juffair. Documented incidents of abuse include racial intimidation, sexual harassment, physical abuse and anti-gay harassment. One sailor, Master-At-Arms 3rd Class Joseph Rocha, suffered post-traumatic stress disorder because of his abuse at the hands of fellow sailors, and he alleges that another sailor committed suicide because of her treatment. The Navy investigated the allegations in 2007 and documented the abuse, but took little substantive action. However, Pennsylvania Congressman Joe Sestak, a former Vice Admiral, demanded a new examination of the report's findings which led to the disciplining of Rocha's former superior, Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint. The scandal came to widespread public attention as United States President Barack Obama faced increased pressure to repeal the military's gay-exclusionary policy known as "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT).
The United States military formerly excluded gay men, bisexuals, and lesbians from service. In 1993, the United States Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed, a law instituting the policy commonly referred to as "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT), which allowed gay, lesbian, and bisexual people to serve as long as they did not reveal their sexual orientation. Although there were isolated instances in which service personnel were met with limited success through lawsuits, efforts to end the ban on openly gay, lesbian, and bisexual people serving either legislatively or through the courts initially proved unsuccessful.
The 2010 Arizona state elections were held on November 2, 2010, with primaries on August 24, 2010. These include gubernatorial and both sides of Congress. A special election was also on May 18 for Proposition 100.
Log Cabin Republicans v. United States, 658 F.3d 1162 was a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of 10 U.S.C. § 654, commonly known as don't ask, don't tell (DADT), which, prior to its repeal, excluded homosexuals from openly serving in the United States military. The Log Cabin Republicans (LCR), an organization composed of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Republicans, brought the suit on behalf of LCR members who serve or served in the military and were subject to DADT.
Witt v. Department of the Air Force, 527 F.3d 806 is a federal lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of 10 U.S.C. § 654, the law, since repealed, that excluded openly homosexual people from serving in the United States military, commonly known as "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT). The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in 2008 that under Lawrence v. Texas DADT constitutes an "[attempt] to intrude upon the personal and private lives of homosexuals" and it is subject to "heightened scrutiny", meaning that the government "must advance an important governmental interest, the intrusion must significantly further that interest, and the intrusion must be necessary to further that interest."
The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 is a landmark United States federal statute enacted in December 2010 that established a process for ending the "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) policy, thus allowing gay, lesbian, and bisexual people to serve openly in the United States Armed Forces. It ended the policy in place since 1993 that allowed them to serve only if they kept their sexual orientation secret and the military did not learn of their sexual orientation, which was controversial.
OutServe-SLDN was a network of LGBT military personnel, formed as a result of the merger between OutServe and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. OutServe-SLDN was one of the largest LGBT employee resource groups in the world. OutServe was founded by a 2009 graduate of the US Air Force Academy, Josh Seefried and Ty Walrod. There were over 7,000 members and 80 chapters worldwide.
Collins v. United States is a class-action lawsuit filed on November 10, 2010, against the United States in the United States Court of Federal Claims that ended in a settlement on January 7, 2013.
Dan Choi is an American former infantry officer in the United States Army who served in combat in the Iraq War during 2006–2007. He became an LGBT rights activist following his coming out on The Rachel Maddow Show in March 2009 and publicly challenged America's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, which forbade lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) service members from serving openly.
Jase Daniels is a United States Navy linguist who was discharged from the military twice under the policy known as "don't ask, don't tell" (DADT). Daniels served from 2001 to 2005 and again from 2006 to 2007. After coming out in Stars and Stripes, a newspaper published under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Defense, Daniels challenged the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that forbade gay and lesbian service members from serving openly. His case attracted attention in such major U.S. media outlets as Newsweek and the New York Times. Daniels returned to active duty in the United States Navy on December 12, 2011, and is believed to be one of the first servicemembers, and perhaps the first, to return to active duty following the end of restrictions on service by openly gay and lesbian servicemembers in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Tracy William Thorne-Begland is an American judge on the General District Court of Richmond, Virginia, appointed in 2012. He was the first openly gay jurist elected by the Virginia General Assembly.
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