Posted on 07/27/2006 7:39:00 AM PDT by SmithL
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) - A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, though he says he never admitted being gay and his accuser was never identified.
Bleu Copas, 30, told The Associated Press he is gay, but said he was "outed" by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.
"I knew the policy going in," Copas said in an interview on the campus of East Tennessee State University, where he is pursuing a master's degree in counseling and working as a student adviser. "I knew it was going to be difficult."
An eight-month Army investigation culminated in Copas' honorable discharge on Jan. 30 _ less than four years after he enlisted, he said, out of a post-Sept. 11 sense of duty to his country.
Copas now carries the discharge papers, which mention his awards and citations, so he can document his military service for prospective employers. But the papers also give the reason for his dismissal.
He plans to appeal to the Army Board for Correction of Military Records.
The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, established in 1993, prohibits the military from inquiring about the sex lives of service members, but requires discharges of those who openly acknowledge being gay.
The policy is becoming "a very effective weapon of vengeance in the armed forces" said Steve Ralls, a spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a Washington-based watchdog organization that counseled Copas and is working to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Copas said he was never open about his sexuality in the military and suspects his accuser was someone he mistakenly befriended and apparently slighted.
More than 11,000 service members have been dismissed under the policy, including 726 last year _ an 11 percent jump from 2004 and the first increase since 2001.
That's less than a half-percent of the more than 2 million soldiers, sailors and Marines dismissed for all reasons since 1993, according to the General Accountability Office.
But the GAO also noted that nearly 800 dismissed gay or lesbian service members had critical abilities, including 300 with important language skills. Fifty-five were proficient in Arabic, including Copas, a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in California.
Discharging and replacing them has cost the Pentagon nearly $369 million, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Lt. Col. James Zellmer, Copas' commanding officer in the 313th military intelligence battalion, told the AP that "the evidence clearly indicated that Sgt. Copas had engaged in homosexual acts."
While investigators were never able to determine who the accuser was, "in the end, the nature and the volume of the evidence and Sgt. Copas's own sworn statement led me to discharge him," Zellmer said.
Military investigators wrote that Copas "engaged in at least three homosexual relationships, and is dealing with at least two jealous lovers, either of whom could be the anonymous source providing this information."
Shortly after Copas was appointed to the 82nd Airborne's highly visible All-American Chorus last May, the first e-mail came to the chorus director.
"The director brought everyone into the hallway and told us about this e-mail they had just received and blatantly asked, 'Which one of you are gay?'" Copas said.
Copas later complained to the director and his platoon sergeant, saying the questions violated "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
"They said they would watch it in the future," Copas said. "And they said, even specifically then, 'Well, you are not gay are you?' And I said, 'no.'"
The accuser, who signed his e-mails "John Smith" or "ftbraggman," pressed Copas' superiors to take action against him or "I will inform your entire battalion of the information that I gave you."
On Dec. 2, investigators formally interviewed Copas and asked if he understood the military's policy on homosexuals, if he had any close acquaintances who were gay, and if he was involved in community theater. He answered affirmatively.
But Copas declined to answer when they asked, "Have you ever engaged in homosexual activity or conduct?" He refused to answer 19 of 47 questions before he asked for a lawyer and the interrogation stopped.
Copas said he accepted the honorable discharge to end the ordeal, to avoid lying about his sexuality and risking a perjury charge, and to keep friends from being targeted.
"It is unfair. It is unjust," he said. "Even with the policy we have, it should never have happened."
"If you're in a foxhole and taking rounds, you don't give a damn what the guy next to you does with his gun as long as he can shoot straight with his rifle........."
Ain't that the truth! And ya know what? If he likes the way my behind looks in camos he might even try a little harder to keep it alive!
Funny, with this story, the guy making the anonymous statements/threats is actually less of a real man than the gay guy.....at least the gay guy isn't hiding anonymously.
Shortly after Copas was appointed to the 82nd Airborne's highly visible All-American Chorus last May...
We have kicked so many gays out of the military
_________________
Really??? How many have we kicked out?
" more than 2 million soldiers, sailors and Marines dismissed for all reasons since 1993..."
2 million military dismissed in 13 years? I know nothing, does that make sense?
If they asked in the beginning and if the answer was "yes" the applicant was shown the door, all this would be solved at no cost.
Don't Ask Don't Tell is better than an open door policy, but much better is to weed them out during recruitment.
Then I guess I was guilty of SODOMY, too. The rules are the rules...........
Based on a literal reading of the UCMJ- emphasis on the part you highlighted, many strait, monogomous, married people would be in violation...
it's listed in block 28, Narrative Reason for Separation...I've seen many of these...
I am still in violation.........
And make 5 times the salary they were paid in the military. And they receive benefits, health insurance, overtime pay, holidays off, commissary privileges, and on and on...
Jeez! What I am still doing in the navy? < /sarc>
"I believe people should be allowed to serve their country if they choose to do so and are fit mentally and physically. There was no reason for this guy to be kicked out. DADT needs to come to an end."
Would you be comfortable showering within 2 feet of a gay person of your sex? Accepting gays in the military is no different than having co-ed showers. That's just the opinion of this one time lowly enlisted soldier.
This suggests that a disproportionate slice of the AP and NYT staff pie are roundmouths. Who'd a' thunk it?
Even the venerable Barry Goldwater changed his views on homosexuals in the military before his death. He asked a Taiwanese General, whose military is one of the highest trained and ready to fight in the world, what his country did about gays in the military. He replied,"Nothing." They did not care, and saw it as not hampering their fighting ability at all. I was in the Marines back in the early 70's, and knew there were gay Marines then, even though the term "gay' had not yet become common usage. I knew it, we all did. They performed their military duties as well as if not better than others...........
Exactly.
I think you are correct. I went back to my DD 214 and in block 28 it says the reason for separation is retirement. But for a person who is separated as being homosexual what exactly does it say in Block 28? Still, there are a couple of things that puzzle me about this. First, if the soldier wasn't gay then why didn't he challenge the allegation? If he wasn't gay then couldn't he argue he was a victim of slander? And if he is gay, then what difference does it make in the civilian world? I don't think there are too many employers out there that have employment policies that ban gays.
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