Pvt. Bethany Smith fled Fort Campbell two years ago. As a lesbian, she says that she suffered from physical and mental abuse by other soldiers. At the age of 19, she crossed the U.S. and Canadian border and officially went AWOL.

Now, Ms. Smith is fighting to receive official refugee status in Canada. In November, she came one step closer after the Canadian Immigration Review Board agreed to re-evaluate her plea for asylum.

Ms. Smith enlisted in 2006 and said that she was not aware of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), the military policy that prevents gays and lesbians from openly serving in the U.S. military. She was outed when a fellow soldier saw her holding hands with another female in a shopping mall.

She claims that she was initially subjected to nasty taunts that eventually escalated into physical abuse. She also claims to have received hundreds of threatening notes and even an anonymous letter that threatened her lift. She feels that once her superiors became aware of the fact that she is a lesbian she was subjected to extra work.

Smith tried to get out of the military under DADT by admitting she was gay but was denied. Instead, her superior informed her that any problems would be sorted after she returned from deployment.

With all options exhausted, Ms. Smith crossed the border on September 11, 2007.

The army alleges that Ms. Smith simply did not want to serve in Afghanistan, but her attorney says:

“The idea that she would be deployed with people who were giving her death threats is a problem, if people in your unit are not there to have your back, you would be killed in a war and you wouldn’t even know if it was because of friendly fire, of enemy fire or because of someone deliberately firing at you.”

In 2008, her asylum plea was denied by the Immigration Review Board. They denied her claim by saying that she did not provide sufficient evidence suggesting that she would be subjected to discrimination by returning to the U.S. After learning of the review boards decision, Smith applied for and received a stay or deportation so that she could appeal it.

Federal Court Justice Yves de Montigny, who oversaw the judicial review of her case says that the review board did not give enough deference to her sexuality:

“At the heart of the applicant’s claim is that she is a lesbian member of the U.S. army, who was harassed and threatened at the same base where a gay member of the army was beaten to death, and who feels she could not rely on her superiors to secure protection.”

He also cited a case from 1999 where a male private that served at the same base as Ms. Smith was beaten to death with a baseball bat because of his sexuality. Because of that case, the judge felt that her sexuality should be considered. He is also concerned about additional discrimination and a harsher punishment by the U.S. military since evidence suggests that it is harsher on gay military personnel that desert and because it did not follow its own policy in regards to DADT.

Smith will have another opportunity to plea her case before the review board next year. If she wins, she will be permitted to remain in Canada.

President Obama and many members of Congress have promised to repeal DADT.  The issue was to be taken up by Congress this year but was then shifted to next year.

Tags: Canada, Congress, DADT, Don't Ask Don't Tell, LGBT, Obama Administration