Mercury News reports:
Pentagon statistics obtained by University of California researchers show that women were discharged under the military's "don't ask, don't tell policy" on openly gay service members at rates up to three times higher than their overall ranks.

Every military branch dismissed a disproportionate number of female service members in 2008, but the discrepancy was particularly marked in the Air Force. There, women were a majority of those let go under the policy, even though they made up only 20 percent of personnel.

Across the military, women represented slightly more than one-third of the 619 people discharged based on sexual orientation. They account for 15 percent of active and reserve duty servicemembers. The data were released Thursday by the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara