OOPS! US MILITARY RECRUITS ON GAY SITE

The US Military has egg on its collective face after it tried to recruit personnel on a gay website – despite gays being barred from serving in the American armed forces.

The ads, advertising jobs in the military, were run on GLEE.com – a social networking site for gay professionals.

When asked by USA Today about the ads, Major Michael Baptista, advertising branch chief for the Army National Guard, told the newspaper that “This is the first I’ve heard about it… We didn’t knowingly advertise on that particular website.”

The navy has since removed its ads from the site, while the Marine Corps has said it was only advertising civilian jobs, which are not affected by the anti-gay policy.

It is thought that the ads landed up on GLEE.com as part of an advertising package consisting of various websites.

Under the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, gays and lesbians are not allowed to serve in the US military.

According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), since 1993, more than 11,000 service personnel have been dismissed under the policy. These included nearly 800 with skills deemed ‘mission-critical’ by the Department of Defense, despite the US Military acknowledging that it is facing a skills shortage.