THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 17, 1994 TAG: 9410170061
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
A homosexual sailor who has waged a two-year legal battle against his discharge by the Navy said Sunday that he had prevailed because the government allowed a legal deadline to pass Friday without challenging an appeals court decision in his favor.
Lawyers for the Navy flight instructor, Petty Officer Keith Meinhold, said the government did not file a required notice seeking a review of a Sept. 1 decision by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The judges ruled that the Navy could not discharge Meinhold merely because he is gay.
``For two and a half years, the Pentagon has fought tooth and nail to kick me out of the Navy because I'm gay,'' said Meinhold in a statement quoted by The Associated Press and Reuters in California. ``By this decision, they finally have admitted that I can say I am gay and proudly serve my country in the military.''
A government lawyer said Sunday that the Justice Department had not ignored the deadline but was intentionally allowing the decision to stand without asking for a review by the full appeals court. But the official added that Justice had not yet decided whether to petition the Supreme Court. The government has more than a month to make that decision.
But one lawyer who has followed the case suggested that the Justice Department officials may have decided against all further appeals in this case. ``The solicitor general believes that policy issues could be better litigated in the context of other cases,'' he said, referring to Drew Days, the solicitor general, who is government's chief lawyer in appellate courts.
Meinhold was discharged in 1992 under a longstanding policy barring homosexuals from the armed forces after he said in an interview on a nationwide television broadcast that he was a homosexual.
He challenged the discharge, and the appeals court upheld a lower court's order that Meinhold be reinstated. He is now stationed at the Naval Air Station on Whidbey Island in Washington state. ILLUSTRATION: Meinhold
KEYWORDS: GAYS IN THE MILITARY HOMOSEXUALS by CNB