By CHRIS JOHNSON, Washington Blade
Apr 24 2008, 11:11 AM |
|  | 
Gay service members recently discharged from the armed forces are fuming over new data showing that recruiters are admitting ex-felons to fill the ranks, while the military continues to expel others for their sexual orientation.
The data, released Monday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, reveals that the number of Army felony waivers given to enlistees jumped from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007. The number of felony waivers granted in the Marine Corps rose from 208 to 350.
The numbers are broken down according to the nature of offense for when a felony waiver was needed. During the 2006-2007 period, the Army offered waivers to three soldiers who had been convicted of manslaughter, one convicted of kidnapping, 11 convicted of arson, 142 convicted of burglary, three convicted of indecent acts with children, seven convicted of sexual assault and three convicted of making terrorist threats.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon discharged about 700 service members for being gay in 2006 under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Alexander Blais, a former Army soldier discharged in 2007, was frustrated that the military would take on convicted felons to fill shortfalls in desperation while at same time continue its policy of expelling gay troops.
“They’ve lowered their standards to let these soldiers into the military to try to make up for the fact that we are indeed in an unpopular war,” he said.
Blais, 22, began serving in Army intelligence in 2005 and participated in National Security Agency (NSA) counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics activities. In 2006, while taking part in a mission in Costa Rica, Blais let it slip to commanding officers and fellow soldiers that he was gay.
After being put under status known as a “suspension of favorable actions,” Blais was stripped of his “top secret” clearance, making him ineligible for NSA duties.
He was discharged in March 2007, but technically for medical reasons and not because of his sexual orientation. Lawyers for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network found that the Army had started a medical review on Blais because he had asthma. SLDN argued that this review held precedent over investigation into his sexual orientation. The Army agreed to follow through with the medical review and dismiss him for his medical condition.
Blais said he was particularly angered because he contends straight soldiers were participating in sexual misconduct during the 2006 mission in Costa Rica, and yet these soldiers were promoted upon return to the United States instead of being discharged.
“There were a number of married non-commissioned officers that fooled around with each other and with the locals down there, and it was well-known to almost everybody, but nothing was ever said or done about it,” he said.
Blais now lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and is under contract with RedSky Land, doing research on natural gas tunnels.
Jason Knight, who was discharged from the Navy in 2007, said it was “outrageous” that the military would allow convicted felons to enlist in the armed forces while expelling troops for their sexual orientation.
“They’re still clinging to this ‘it’s going to hurt morale and cohesion,’ but what about letting convicted felons in?” he asked. “Is that not going to hurt
morale and cohesion?”
Knight, 25, has the distinction of being discharged from the Navy twice for being gay. Knight started serving in the Navy in 2001, working first as a ceremonial guard in Washington and then as a Hebrew translator at Ft. Gordon in Georgia. Knight came out to his commanding officer in 2005. He was released from the Navy, but was not labeled as a homosexual on his discharge information.
To his surprise, Knight was called back to active duty in July 2006. He served in Kuwait as openly gay and Stars & Stripes published an article on him in May 2007. He was again expelled, and this time his discharge information indicated that he was a homosexual.
Knight now lives in the Washington area and works as an SLDN communications associate.
Heather Sarver, a former Russian linguist in the Air Force who was discharged from the service in 2003, joined former service members who were outraged by the revelation on felony waivers.
“They’re saying that they’d rather have a convicted felon in the military than a gay person in the military — which is really just twisted I think,” she said.
Sarver, who is 27 and a lesbian, joined the Air Force in July 2000. In 2002, she was assigned to duties in San Antonio where she said she was put in “a really homophobic, hostile working environment.” Her fellow airmen frequently made derogatory comments about gays, she said. Sarver was supervisor for her section and would write up airmen for making the comments, but she said no action was ever taken by commanding officers.
“A lot of my superiors were sort of operating under the assumption that it was OK to harass gay people in the military because nobody’s allowed to be gay in the military, which is not true, because people are allowed to be gay, you’re just not allowed to say you’re gay,” she said.
Writing people up made Sarver more of a target of harassment and she started having anxiety attacks, she said. She went to the Army counselor, but since there is no doctor-patient confidentiality in the military, she could not disclose why she was uncomfortable. She requested to be moved to a different office, but the Air Force denied her request, stating that no one else in her office was mature enough to take on her position.
In the summer of 2003, Sarver went to her commanding officer but her superior provided no assistance. The commanding officer said that a lot of female pilots have to deal with sexual harassment and Sarver should just learn to “suck it up,” according to Sarver. She then sent a letter to her commanding officer outing herself and complaining that no one would do anything to mitigate the harassment she experienced. The discharge process then proceeded.
Sarver was told that it could be several months for the discharge process to be completed. But in the next few weeks, Sarver’s base learned that an inspector general was coming to investigate conditions. Sarver said she wanted to speak with the inspector general to discuss how she filed write-ups that were never acted upon. Upon making this request, Sarver was then taken to her commanding officer who discharged her.
The Air Force threatened that they would not give Sarver an honorable discharge and that she would have to pay back her enlistment bonus for signing on as a linguist, Sarver said. SLDN lawyers litigated on her behalf to help her get an honorable discharge and the benefits she says she was promised.
Sarver is now living on Long Island in New York and is a law student at Hofstra University.
Disgust over the numbers revealed by the House committee is not confined to troops discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Retired Air Force Col. Daniel Tepfer, who is also on the national board of directors of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), said he was “appalled” by the data.
“While second chances are, in many cases, a noble thing to offer, lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans aren’t given even a first chance to serve,” Tepfer said.
On April 16, Lawrence Korb, a former a
|
