THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 27, 1995 TAG: 9504270328
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BALTIMORE LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
A Norfolk-based sailor can stay in the Navy pending the outcome of his legal challenge to the military's policy on service by avowed homosexuals, a federal judge here decided Wednesday.
Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Young said he has substantial concerns about the Navy's handling of discharge proceedings against Lt. j.g. Richard ``Dirk'' Selland, a deputy director of the Fleet Industrial Supply Center in Norfolk.
In particular, Young questioned the impartiality of a senior officer who sat on the Navy board of inquiry that last summer unanimously recommended Selland's dismissal. Capt. Dale J. Feltes was kept on the three-member panel despite his testimony that he does not believe an acknowledged homosexual can be an effective naval officer.
Selland's lawyer, Hank Hockeimer of Washington, argued that by permitting Feltes to participate, the Navy effectively conceded that ``to the extent this policy has any basis, it's based on prejudice.''
But Joseph LoBue, a Justice Department lawyer, countered that in ordering the policy, Congress concluded that open homosexuality is incompatible with military service. Feltes ``isn't biased because he reached the same conclusion Congress did,'' the lawyer said.
Young said he will order at least a six-month delay in Selland's discharge. That should be long enough to let the judge conduct a trial on the officer's challenge to the Pentagon's ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' policy toward gays, the judge added.
A Justice Department spokesman said later that no decision has been made on whether to appeal Young's ruling immediately.
Selland is the first Norfolk-based sailor to file suit over the policy, which permits gay people to stay in the service only if they keep their sexual orientation secret and abstain from homosexual activity. His case is one of several making their way through the federal courts; legal authorities said it could be another year or more before the Supreme Court makes a final ruling.
Former Lt. j.g. Tracy Thorne, an aviator based at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach when he publicly declared his homosexuality in 1992, has a case pending in Alexandria against the policy. Now out of the Navy, Thorne is living in Richmond.
The Navy on Friday was set to discharge Selland, whose work as a supply officer has been much praised by his superiors. The 26-year-old Salisbury, Md., native has been battling to stay in the service since disclosing two years ago that he is gay.
Selland said Wednesday that his shipmates on the Norfolk-based submarine Hammerhead had suspected his orientation and frequently teased him about it. He described their treatment of him as usually good-natured but added that they were less restrained in general discussions about sex among homosexual men and women.
Troubled by the jokes and believing that President Clinton soon would lift restrictions on service by gays, Selland said he disclosed his orientation to his commanding officer on the Hammerhead. He believed that the conversation would be kept confidential and that his skipper would stop the hazing, he said. Instead, he was ordered off the ship within hours.
The heart of Selland's case is his claim that the Navy is trying to dismiss him strictly because of his statement that he is gay. That violates his constitutional right to freedom of speech, Hockeimer argued Wednesday.
The service has never presented any evidence of sexual activity by Selland; under the Pentagon's policy, his statement that he is gay creates a presumption that he has committed or intends to commit homosexual acts. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
Lt. j.g. Richard Selland and his mother, Dalarie Selland, together
in Baltimore on Wednesday.
KEYWORDS: HOMOSEXUAL U.S. NAVY LAWSUIT by CNB