Karen Mesko

Karen Mesko joined Air Force ROTC as a college freshman at the University of Michigan. In her junior year, she realized she was gay.  Karen hated having to lie to the military, so she decided to commission into the Reserves with the hope of at least living honestly in her personal life. This meant giving up an active duty career – a dream for which she had spent four years training. Karen was a Distinguished Graduate at all three military training courses she attended, and she received outstanding performance ratings. But after several years, she was no longer willing to live in fear of being found out or to continue compromising her integrity. She came out to her commander and was discharged under DADT for “moral and professional dereliction,” as her discharge papers read. Karen is currently finishing her master’s degree in public policy and management at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.