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Many troops openly
gay, group says
By Andrea Stone,
usatoday.com from the Web. January 8, 2008
Army Sgt. Darren Manzella figured
that stating he was gay on national television would surely get him booted from
the military under the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
But Manzella has heard nothing in the three weeks since he told CBS' 60 Minutes
that his fellow soldiers knew he was gay and the program aired a home video that
showed him kissing a former boyfriend.
"I thought I would at least be asked about the segment or approached and told I
shouldn't speak to the media again," says Manzella, 30, a medic who recently
returned from Kuwait and plans to hold a news conference today in Washington to
discuss the military's silence.
He says he is among a growing number of servicemembers who have told other
troops and even commanders they are gay and have not been discharged.
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a gay advocacy group, says it knows of
about 500 gay troops who are serving openly without consequences. "That's
the highest number we've ever been aware of," says SLDN spokesman Steve Ralls.
"Their experiences point to an undeniable shift in the armed forces."
Manzella says he was invited to join more than 600 members of an invitation-only
MySpace group, Guys and Gals Like Us, for gays who don't hide their orientation
from their units. The members use pseudonyms because some gay
servicemembers have been discharged for acknowledging their sexual orientation
elsewhere online.
Nearly 12,000 troops have been dismissed under the policy approved by President
Clinton in 1993. Discharges peaked at 1,273 in 2001 and have fallen
sharply since the war began.
"A lot of servicemembers are getting 'wink-wink' treatment from their
commanders," says Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center at the University of
California, Santa Barbara, which studies the policy.
Elaine Donnelly, whose Center for Military Readiness favors a ban on gays, says
"skepticism is in order" about reports that they are serving openly without
sanctions. She says she has been "bothering" commanders at Manzella's
base, Fort Hood, Texas, to take action since the 60 Minutes piece aired.
"We have yet to get an answer," she says. "His commanders should be
disciplined appropriately for failing to do their duty."
Manzella, who earned a Combat Medical Badge for service in Baghdad, says he's
been open about his sexuality for 18 months. He says he told his commander
he was gay because he was getting anonymous e-mails threatening to expose him.
The Army investigated in August 2006 and viewed the video that showed his
boyfriend.
After all that, "They found 'no evidence of homosexuality,' " Manzella says.
"They recommended that I just go back and keep doing my job." He soon
headed to Kuwait for his second Iraq war deployment.
Col. Diane Battaglia, a Fort Hood spokeswoman, said Manzella's commanders were
unavailable for comment because his unit was redeploying from the Middle East.
But, she said, "There's always an investigation conducted" when a soldier
declares he's gay.
Army spokesman Paul Boyce says the "policy is public law, and it is being
enforced." It's not illegal to be gay in the military, he points out, as
long as a servicemember keeps quiet.
Eugene Fidell of the National Institute of Military Justice, a group of military
legal experts, wonders whether the dwindling number of discharges suggests
broader implications for the policy. "Is it dying basically for lack of
interest?" he asks. "Military managers may be turning a blind eye because
it's a nuisance, and we need these people."
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