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Loading ...Navy reviewing abuse of gay sailor
09.23.2009 8:04am EDT
(Annapolis, Md.) The Navy is reviewing how it handled the case of a gay sailor abused by fellow servicemen in Bahrain for two years until he sought a discharge by coming out to his commanding officer, a military spokesman said Tuesday.
Joseph Rocha, now 23, decided to leave the Navy in 2007 by telling his commander he was gay, in violation of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder from the constant hazing while he served with military dog handlers based in Bahrain to support the Iraq war.An internal Navy investigation into his unit found dozens of examples of hazing and sexual harassment against multiple sailors between 2005 and 2006. The result of the investigation was not clear; a copy of the report released under the Freedom of Information Act has all recommendations blacked out.
Now, a congressman who is a former admiral has asked the Navy for information about the harassment, the service’s internal investigation, and an explanation as to why the head of the military working dog unit at the time was promoted.
The Sept. 11 letter from Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., to Navy Secretary Raymond Mabus followed a story about the Navy findings of abuse that was first reported by a California news organization earlier this month.
“Without a question, it heightens and makes more salient this issue,” said Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa. “It highlights the loss of another good individual.”
A Navy spokesman said the case and its outcomes are being reviewed.
“The incidents that occurred within the Military Working Dog Division at Naval Support Activity Bahrain do not reflect who we are as a Navy,” said Cmdr. Cappy Surette, a Navy spokesman. “The Navy is now looking into the handling of this situation more carefully.”
The Chief of Naval Operations directed Commander Navy Installations Command on Tuesday to review the actions taken after the earlier investigation and report back on Oct. 6.
“CNIC may use information from the ongoing review by Commander, Navy Region Europe, Africa, Southwest Asia, who has previously directed his staff to review the outcomes of the JAGMAN investigation,” Surette said. “Any subsequent action will be informed by the CNIC review.”
Opponents of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy say Rocha was trapped: he couldn’t report the abuse because that could reveal his sexual orientation. They say the policy also played a role in the abuse: Others in the unit repeatedly asked Rocha if he was gay – a violation of the “don’t ask” provision – because he would not avail himself of prostitutes who visited their quarters. And, in the end, Rocha’s PTSD prompted him to tell the Navy he is gay, resulting in his expulsion.
Sestak also is requesting information regarding Chief Petty Officer Michael Toussaint, who was responsible for the unit and was later promoted to senior chief.
“It would astound me if he was promoted if these allegations are true,” Sestak said in an interview. “What kind of a command climate is that?”
Toussaint has been deployed. His location could not be released and he could not be reached for comment, said Cmdr. Greg Giesen, a Navy spokesman.
Shaun Hogan of Maine, a former Bahrain colleague of Rocha’s who is now a reservist, said Rocha was treated worse than others who were hazed because Rocha was believed to be gay. Hogan said some in the unit “blatantly asked” if Rocha was gay. It was Hogan who obtained the Navy’s report and shared it with Youth Radio, an Oakland, Calif., news organization that broke the story.
“He was one in a large number of people who were abused for a variety of different reasons,” Hogan said.
Rocha graduated at the top of his class in military police training school in Texas. He received favorable performance evaluations throughout his career, Sestak noted in his letter.
But within a month of his arrival in Bahrain in 2005 to join the handlers and their dogs in seeking out hidden explosives, Rocha said he found an abusive atmosphere in which he was hazed repeatedly, even though he never spoke of his sexual orientation.
“What made my rite of passage different is that I refused to have sex with prostitutes,” Rocha said. “In doing so, I gave them reason enough for them to think I was gay and they took it upon themselves to punish me for it for two years.”
Aaron Belkin, who studies the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as director of the Palm Center at the University of California at Santa Barbara, said while Rocha’s case is extreme, the harsh treatment is not an isolated incident.
“Research shows that you can’t prevent anti-gay abuse as long as discrimination remains official policy,” Belkin said.
Some Democratic lawmakers are pushing legislation to repeal the 1993 law. President Barack Obama pledged as a candidate to end the ban, but has not done so.
Rocha said he enlisted in the Navy in 2004 to demonstrate his commitment to earning an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy after he wasn’t admitted to the school.
In June 2007, he was accepted at the academy prep school in Newport, R.I., where candidates can build the academic skills they need to be accepted to the four-year academy. While there, Rocha said depression resulting from his experience in Bahrain made him decide to tell school officials he was gay. He was isolated from other students for two months, then honorably discharged in October 2007.
“I was faced with the idea of being in a navy that condoned this for another decade,” Rocha said. “I wouldn’t have allowed myself to live like that anymore.”
A letter from Rocha’s doctor at the Department of Veterans Affairs in San Francisco confirms that he has been diagnosed with PTSD.
Rocha, now a student at the University of San Diego, hopes he can one day return to serve openly in the military as a Marine Corps officer.
“I’m just waiting for the policy to be repealed,” Rocha said.
That story was nothing but some in da closet assholes! That man should of knocked they butts out of the service. I would of.
Wow. This case really illustrates the insanity of the policy.
As usual there is half truths woven into the Navy story. What journalist should be going after are the officers that look the other way when this type of abuse is happening. Officers just do not want to know about it even though this knowledge is well know and it encourages it as the soldiers know they can get away with it.
(Typing in the wee early morning hours is challenging. Below is what I attempted to say in the last paragraph of my last entry)
Please give an another example of 13,000 (and rising) expelled military personnel, other than Gays and Lesbians, who have been systematically persecuted and then drummed out of the military since 1992 — many of whom were career officers; mission crucial soldiers, and even war heroes. What other minority group is singled out for the “crime of being who they are” and then has to endure the most vile treatment imaginable heaped upon them like those in the GLBT community continue to endure in the US Armed Forces.
So, what kind of help can we expect from the White House. Read below.
According to a June 2009 report in the Boston Globe ( http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/06/house_dems_urge.html )
WASHINGTON _ In the most vocal plea yet for the White House to take the lead in pushing for gays and lesbians to be allowed to serve openly in the military, 77 Democratic lawmakers today urged President Obama to use his executive powers to order a halt to military discharges under the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law and work aggressively with Congress to pass new legislation to overturn what they describe as a discriminatory policy that harms national security.
“We urge you to exercise the maximum discretion legally possible in administering Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell until Congress repeals the law,” states the letter, organized by Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Democrat of Florida. “To this end, we ask that you direct the Armed Services not to initiate any investigation of service personnel to determine their sexual orientation, and that you instruct them to disregard third party accusations that do not allege violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”
A recent study by the Palm Center, a public policy think tank at the University of California, Santa Barbara, argued that Obama has the authority as commander-in-chief to suspend the gay discharge process through an executive order.
Obama aides have said the president still plans on acting on his campaign pledge to work for the law’s repeal but have outlined a very deliberative process of study and consultation with the top military brass that could take months, if not years.
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Rainfish comments:
Got that… (the White House has) outlined a very deliberative process of study and consultation with the top military brass that could take months, if not years.
…Hmmmmmm….years…decades…never. Yep, “Change You Can Believe In” alright.
Too bad President Johnson didn’t try that trick in delaying the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, perhaps the South would still be in the Democrat’s corner.
But he knew that would be wrong — just as most of us do. Obviously, nearly a half a century later, the GLBT community after having endured hundreds of years of oppression, discrimination and unimaginable acts of violence perpetrated against our own kind in this fascist country does not rise to the same level of importance.
The government of the United States is beneath competent for allowing these human rights abuses to continue. Obama is a certifiable cretin and a hypocrite if ever he speaks out before the UN General Assembly citing human rights violations in other countries while turning a blind eye to discrimination, oppression and the dehumanization of the very same GLBT community which put him and the Democratic Party into power in the US.
By the way, the White House asked Congressman Hastings to withdraw his bill relating to DADT the congressman told the press. So, let the Congress take the initiative Obama says — then we’ll secretly ask them to kill it. What kind of conscienceless bastard does that? Oh…could it be probably the same kind of miscreant who asked mega-homophobe Rick Warren to open his presidential inauguration ceremonies after he had already shaken down the no longer useful fools and dumb lemmings in the GLBT community for their votes? …Such a nice guy!
We need a strong truly liberal third party option in Washington to break the strangle-hold the corporate political whores and theocrats have on our rights in the un-United States of America. Until then, nothing will change for our community. Nothing at all.
If you vote for any politician out of panic and blind fear of the alternative, they basically have your ass over a barrel and they owe you nothing in return because they got you too scared to reason independently and to think for yourself. Old President Lyndon Johnson knew how to get things done in D.C. . He knew how to twist arms when he need to in order to get legislation done. As crude as it sounds, his favorite line (in reference to any congressman who may have stepped out of line in his our party) was: “Don’t worry about him, I’ve got his dick in my pocket.” In other words, he owned them.
That is what the Democratic Party leadership has reduced us to in the GLBT community — political eunuchs — but only because we have let them do so.
~ Rainfish
Dontcha just love documentation which is released under the Freedom of Information act which has black-out redactions?
Sort of like military intelligence and other such oxy-morons.
Remember folks, ignorance is strength, war is peace and well…you know….
So, how exactly was Joseph Rocha treated?
He was:
• Forced to take part in film recordings whereby he would have to simulate gay sex with other officers.
• Was repeatedly asked by his commanding officer if he was a “faggot” because he refused to have sex with a prostitute.
• Was told by that same commanding officer to act “more queer, have a higher pitched voice, make the sounds and gestures more realistic” under threat of being outed and suspended if he did not comply.
• He was tied to a chair and thrown into a dog cage full of excrement.
And the abuse didn’t stop there.
Here is Joseph speaking about what happened to him in a Youth Radio interview: ( http://headlines.youthradio.org/news/jcr-slate-one-page-one )
The harassment was not just limited to Rocha. Two female military personel on the base, suspected of being lesbians, were also forced to simulate oral sex with one another on video tape. One of the women later committed suicide.
…So, KARI, while I understand the plight of Orthodox Jews not having Rabbis available to them and Kosher meals served at a VA hospital (and that should be corrected, mind you) the comparison is not quite the same as the wholesale and dehumanizing way Gay and Lesbian military personnel are treated. None of your examples show where they were physically attacked for being Jewish or Arab or an Atheist and then had no way of filing a complaint without further humiliation and an absolute assurance of expulsion — with no legal redress.
Please give an example of 13,000 (and rising) military personnel, other than Gays and Lesbians, who have been so systematically persecuted and then drummed out of the military since 1994 (many of whom were career officers and mission crucial soldiers — not to mention war heroes) for the “crime” of belonging to “other” minority groups in contrast to the vile treatment heaped up patriotic military members of the GLBT community in the Armed Forces.
“If it were Jews … then heads would roll from the top down resulting from the public outrage.”
I agree with your opinion regarding gays in the military, but the above is not true.
There’s an ongoing lawsuit from an orthodox Jew against the Veteran’s Administration for repeatedly discriminatory treatment in VA hospitals. On a few instances where he was given the option of requesting a presence of a priest, he asked for his rabbi; the VA employees refused and sent a priest, who promptly left when asked to by the patient.
They also refused to provide him with kosher food while he was there, which caused him to starve each time he was hospitalized.
Atheist soldiers and veterans also have a lot of complaints about the military; they’re generally not even considered for promotions, regardless of the quality and consistency of their service. They are generally cited as having a lack of ‘leadership skills’ for refusing to participate in non-denominational prayers offered at military functions, whether formal or mundane.
I don’t know the specifics of their complaints, but I don’t doubt Muslim soldiers have issues with the military as well.
The military seems to still consider Christianity its official religion and seems to possess an inherent intent to discriminate against non-Christians.
If it were Jews or Blacks or Hispanics or Asian-Americans or heterosexual women or “Christians” or any other individual belonging to any identifiable group, other than Gays and Lesbians, then heads would roll from the top down resulting from the public outrage. Face it, the GLBT community is the very last tin can to kick into the ditch down the civil rights road in America — and no one in power is very enthusiastic about changing that that bitch of a situation anytime soon. ~ Rainfish
Nathaniel Frank writes:
“”Don’t ask, don’t tell” singles out gay people as an “unacceptable risk” to the military. It is especially insidious because it makes gay people eligible to serve while simultaneously calling them a threat. It says to heterosexuals, “Gays are serving with you but they are a danger to your mission.” It’s no wonder many are used as a punching bag.
What is the answer? Rep. Patrick Murphy, an Iraq War veteran and former professor at West Point, is spearheading the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in Congress. This is a brave mission for a young, Catholic, heterosexual representing a moderate district in Pennsylvania. But the effort will not succeed overnight. President Obama, however, has the power, through a 1983 “stop-loss” statute passed by Congress, to halt all discharges immediately by executive order, giving Congress time to debate the issue. As his political capital flies out the door in an all-out effort to reform health care, the likelihood that Congress will end “don’t ask, don’t tell” before the 2010 mid-term elections is quickly plummeting.
This is not an academic debate, and the lives of people like Joseph Rocha should not be held hostage to politics. The cleanest, quickest way to lift the ban and protect all our service members and their national security mission, is for the commander-in-chief to lead the way.”
(Full Article Available and Attribution to http://www.palmcenter.org/node/1429 )
They can “investigate” and “rehash” and “discuss” this until the cows come home and it will not change a damn thing. The young man will NEVER receive “JUSTICE or compensation nor an apology” from his government. What a shame that “heterosexual criminals” are more acceptable for military service than a “gay man or woman” in this country. Does that not tell us that there is a great deal of social change which needs to occur to make “liberty and justice for all” more than a bunch of words. The blood of gay and straight patriots has been spilled to give meaning to that phrase but so many are willing to ignore their sacrifice to maintain bigotry and hatred in this country. What a crying shame that the lives and sacred honor of our patriots is held in such low esteem!
haha… this is why I would never serve my country. Our ignorance and hate is the whole reason we started this war. They wouldn’t have supported terrorist groups if ourselves(and europe) hadn’t basically viewed the whole rest of the world as sub human and meddled in their affairs for so long after we’d already basically altered their culture permanently.
makes you realize that removing DADT is not going to be an easy task. the Military is known for not being condusive to change. Tailhook, will look minor compared to the abuse that will be brought on gay soldiers.
He needs to get a lawyer on his side, based on this article he definitely has a case, I mean they caused his PTSD, as well as exposing him to a pervasive environment of sexual harassment.
This shows a much bigger problem than just gay in our military. Prostitutes? The type of atmosphere that coerces these young men into risky behaviour is unacceptable and leads to all kinds of other problems.
Stupid young straight guys are into gay bashing, we all know that, and having it officially allowed with a discriminatory policy like DADT is disgusting considering this organization represents our values abroad.
However, like I said there is much more to this. Did you all notice the pictures of hazing from the contractor in Iraq? What is it about so called straight men they want to prod their peers into getting naked with them? I find it creepy that they say they like women but love to get all juiced up on alcohol and look at their buddies’ naked bodies. That whole story just made me think about the closet case christian thugs. Are these guys acting tough and doing these tough jobs to hide something or are straight men really into each others bodies in a non sexual way? It looked like a pretty erotic setting to me and without women around as with in jails, we can assume they are giving each other relief.
I think the bigger issue is the military attracts immature men who need that structure to survive. They need the hazing environmnent, the feelig of belonging and the order regimen under which they live.
Without strong leadership which we clearly lack, segmenting out that portion of society and putting them together under stress is going to lead to all kinds of strange actions such as straight (?) men forcing their colleagues to get naked with each other…..and much worse actions of course.
Poor kid..totally unfair but this is much more than a gay issue.
i think they should start with getting the christian taliban, which has infiltrated our military to alarming amounts, out of the organization.
“The incidents that occurred within the Military Working Dog Division at Naval Support Activity Bahrain do not reflect who we are as a Navy,”
The fuck it isn’t. Until you stop viewing us as sub-human this IS the atmosphere that you are fostering!