May 08, 2009  |  By: Lou Chibbaro Jr.  | COMMENTS     

An Army veteran who led two combat units in Iraq before being discharged for being gay is running as a Democrat in a special election for a California seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Anthony Woods, 28, a West Point graduate who recently received a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, announced his candidacy in the hotly contested race in April.

The seat for California’s 10th Congressional District is expected to become vacant later this month when Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) resigns to take an Obama administration appointment as under secretary of state for arms control and international security. The special election is slated for September or October.

Tauscher has been a strong supporter of LGBT rights in a district that has a solid Democratic majority. Located in a section of Northern California known as the East Bay, the district includes a sprawling area between San Francisco and Sacramento.

“I was born and raised in the district,” Woods told the Blade in an interview last week in Washington. “I looked at the issues we’re facing now as a country and that my district is facing and I realized that these are issues that, for the most part, I personally had to experience.”

One of the issues he experienced first-hand is the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that prohibits gays or lesbians from serving openly in the military.

Woods said his personal belief system prompted him to disclose that he is gay to his commanding officer last summer, during his sixth year in the military and shortly after he completed his studies at the Kennedy School under an Army educational program. The disclosure triggered an investigation by the Army that led to his honorable discharge last December.

The discharge came nearly four years after Woods completed his first tour of duty in Iraq as a second lieutenant in charge of a 17-member combat unit from 2004 to 2005 for which he was awarded an Army Commendation Medal. He led a 64-soldier combat unit on his second tour in Iraq from 2005 to 2006. The Army awarded him a Bronze Star for his service on that tour.

“I loved my career in the military and I was really looking forward to continuing that career,” Woods said. “But my time at Harvard provided me an opportunity to recognize and to fully come to terms with who I was.

“I started to realize that it is not at all worth going back to a life of lies and being dishonest to my commanders, to my soldiers, to my peers,” Woods said. “It was something I was no longer willing to do and something I don’t think other members of the LGBT community who serve in the military should do.”

At the time of his discharge, the Army sent Woods a $35,000 bill to cover its cost for his graduate studies at Harvard. Army officials said Woods broke his commitment to serve five more years in exchange for the Army paying for his master’s degree.

“It was worth it,” Woods said on his decision to disclose his sexual orientation.

Woods said he was raised by a single mother who operated a small housekeeping business and struggled to provide for her family. She was unable to afford health insurance, he said, a development that has given him first-hand knowledge of the need for the type of health care reform proposed by President Obama.

He said his experience in the military also gives him first-hand knowledge of the needs of military veterans, who make up a significant number of residents in the 10th District, which includes Travis Air Force Base.

“You look at a number of issues and I realized they’re very personal for me,” he said. “And I think I can come into Congress, come to Washington, D.C., with a lot of personal experience there. So I felt that I had a responsibility to step up to the plate, come home and run” for the congressional seat.

Woods acknowledged the race wouldn’t be easy. Among the other Democrats who have declared their candidacy for the contest are California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, State Sen. Mark Desaulnier, and State Assembly member Joan Buchanan.

Tauscher and U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) have endorsed Desaulnier. The influential women’s rights advocacy group, Emily’s List, is expected to endorse Buchanan.

As a political newcomer, Woods is challenged to overcome his lack of name recognition and raise as much as $1 million to be competitive in a congressional race in an area where television and radio ads are considered an absolute necessity ...