THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 20, 1994 TAG: 9408200253
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California charged Friday that the Navy penalizes homosexual activity by officers and sailors more harshly than it punishes service members found to be engaging in child molestation, rape or incest.
Jon W. Davidson, senior staff counsel for the organization, said the practice is unfair, and called on the Navy to stop prosecuting gays and lesbians for consensual sexual activity. He said the foundation is trying to determine whether other services follow similar practices.
Davidson made public a memo written by Navy Capt. Fred R. Becker Jr., legal counsel to the Bureau of Naval Personnel, which concedes that a Navy dentist who pleaded guilty to committing sodomy on his 16-year-old son last year is being kept on duty under a rehabilitation program.
By contrast, he said, there currently are more than half a dozen cases pending of homosexual officers and enlisted men who have been ordered discharged from the Navy simply for declaring that they are gay - without even having been charged with actual homosexual activity.
The foundation made its complaint in the face of the Defense Department's new ``don't ask-don't tell'' policy on homosexuals in the military, under which gays and lesbians are permitted to remain in the service as long as they keep their sexual orientation secret.
In a memo to the chief of naval personnel, Adm. H. C. McKinney, Becker noted that some of the homosexuals whom the Navy has discharged are suing the Pentagon for taking action against them, and are likely to use the incident involving the dentist to bolster their cases.
KEYWORDS: MILITARY PERSONNEL HOMOSEXUAL SEX CRIME U.S. NAVY
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