{"id":34356,"date":"2021-04-27T20:01:57","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T20:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/04\/27\/new-air-force-teams-to-look-at-lgbtq-indigenous-inclusion-issues\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:01:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:01:45","slug":"new-air-force-teams-to-look-at-lgbtq-indigenous-inclusion-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2021\/04\/27\/new-air-force-teams-to-look-at-lgbtq-indigenous-inclusion-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"New Air Force teams to look at LGBTQ, indigenous inclusion issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Air Force is adding two new groups to its slate of teams working to create equitable policies for minority employees, this time focusing on the LGBTQ and native communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer\/Questioning Initiative Team, or LIT, will tackle the issues that \u201cdisproportionately impede the success\u201d of those airmen and guardians, the Air Force said Monday.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes 10 years after the end of the Pentagon\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell\u201d policy, which banned openly gay personnel from serving in the military from 1993 to 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor many of the senior-ranking military members, some of whom served under [Don\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell] for nearly two decades, the creation of LIT is a watershed event,\u201d the Air Force said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A decade later, LGBTQ troops are rebuilding their representation in the ranks as well as the leadership pipeline. In 2018, the federally funded think tank Rand Corp. reported that 5.3 percent of Air Force members identified as LGBT.<\/p>\n\n\n\t