As gay discharges continue, sailor is murdered

By John Byrne

A 29-year-old Navy sailor was found dead at a Southern California military base Tuesday in a suspected homicide that activists say may have been related to his sexuality.

An unnamed individual is being held as a “person of interest” in the case.

Navy seaman August Provost of Houston, Texas, reportedly complained to his family that was he being harassed; his sister told a local newspaper that they’d advised him to tell his supervisor. If Provost revealed his sexuality, however, he could have been discharged from the armed services.

The news comes on the heels of the military’s recommended discharge of gay Arabic translator Daniel Choi, and discontent within the gay community about the Obama Administration’s actions on gay rights. President Obama says he will not stop the military discharges, which have resulted in the expulsion of more than 250 servicemembers since he was inaugurated in January.

A spokesman for a group that provides legal counseling to gays in and out of the military said the Pentagon’s policy of booting gay servicemembers certainly didn’t help Provost.

“While ‘Don’t ask, Don’t tell’ is in place, anybody in the military who is a homosexual has no place to go to get assistance or counseling,” Servicemembers Legal Defense Network’s Ben Gomez told the San Diego Union Tribune.

According to the paper, an autopsy was completed Wednesday, but toxicology results haven’t yet been finished.

Activists want probe

Local activists have called for a formal investigation.

“We’re definitely monitoring this and trust and hope the military will investigate this in the professional way it should,” Nicole Murray-Ramirez, chairman of San Diego’s Human Rights Commission, was quoted as saying.

The Navy declined to comment about whether Provost’s sexuality had anything to do with his death.

Provost’s purported boyfriend, Kaether Cordero, told the Tribune that the sailor was trusting of others and that he was out to his friends.

“People who he was friends with, I knew that they knew,” Cordero said. “He didn’t care that they knew. He trusted them.”

Obama says he wants policy nixed by Congress

President Obama has said that he’ll work to end the policy expelling gay servicemembers, but wants the measure must be changed by Congress. Activists say that he could invoke his executive authority to stop enforcement of the policy, which was adopted under President Bill Clinton as a compromise measure to reduce discharges.

Democrats in Congress — including openly gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) — say their party doesn’t currently have enough votes to overturn the policy. Public opinion polls show that a vast majority of Americans believe gays should be allowed to serve openly in the military.

Ex-Secretary of State and retired Gen. Colin Powell, who served a chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under President Bill Clinton, has also called for the measure’s reversal.

“It’s been 15 years and attitudes have changed,” Powell told CNN last year. “And, so, I think it is time for the Congress, since it is their law, to have a full review of it. And I’m quite sure that’s what President-elect Obama will want to do.”