LGBT POV

Kudos to The Advocate’s news editor Andrew Harmon, who has committed his team to covering the Log Cabin Republican’s historic federal challenge to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in Riverside, California. Andrew reported on the trial Thursday, during which former petty officer 3rd class Joseph Christopher Rocha (pictured) and DADT expert Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a  think tank based at the University of California/Santa Barbara testified. LCR has posted motions and  the transcripts from the trial (here’s Thursday’s transcript).   UPDATE/CORRECTION: NO ONE IS COVERING TODAY SINCE THEY ARE GOING TO PRESS FOR THE MAGAZINE. 

Here’s an excerpt from Andrew’s summary of Thursday’s trial, which includes a brief interview with LCR lead attorney Dan Woods:

“Former petty officer 3rd class Joseph Christopher Rocha wasn’t the only soldier in his unit subjected to hazing by superiors. But the degrading harassment he faced struck a decidedly different tone.

In a federal trial challenging the constitutionality of “don’t ask, don’t tell” that began this week in a Riverside, Calif. courtroom, Rocha, 24, testified in graphic detail on Thursday about pervasive humiliation he suffered while in training to become an elite military dog handler — abuse that went far beyond ritual hazing.

In one incident, a superior gave him detailed and specific instructions on how to simulate oral sex on another man while fellow soldiers were paraded into the room to watch. In another he was ordered to crawl on all fours and was forced into a kennel filled with dog feces. Fellow soldiers in his unit called him “faggot” and assumed he was gay because he didn’t drink, smoke, gamble, or visit prostitutes in Bahrain, where he was stationed in 2005.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever recovered from it,” Rocha said of the abuse. “It was dehumanizing, I felt like an animal.”

A demonstration at the White House had been planned by GetEQUAL for May 2 before Friday’s White House-backed letter from Defense Sec. Robert Gates to the House Armed Services Committee saying he is “strongly opposed” to any changes to the “don’t ask, don’t tell” legislation before the military review is completed in December.

The protesters, however, feel an urgency to repeal DADT before the November elections when Democrats are expected to lose congressional seats, thereby closing the current “window of opportunity” afforded by a Democratic President and Congress.

Former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean surprised the crowd, joining speakers who include Lt. Dan Choi, Capt. Tanya Domi, and Aubrey Sarvis, Vietnam veteran and executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). (Video and photos of Dean with Sarvis thanks to John Aravois at AmericaBlogGay.)

“This is about the kind of country we are and whether we’ll stand up for those who stand up for us,” said Dean. “This is a community that’s demonstrated their courage. They’ve given their lives and now it’s time to allow them to say who they are.”

Please click inside for more on Sunday’s protest, more about the Gates letter, and read a compellation of quotes and a timeline from SLDN about the effort to repeal DADT. UPDATED WITH MORE INFO AND PHOTOS.

The Palm Center reports that Army Secretary John McHugh thinks the military is ready to lift the gay ban. But there is an interesting twist to this important announcement. There is a HUGE battle within the Republican Party over who will replace MCHugh in a special election in the conservative 23rd District Congressional seat from upstate New York. Could the timing indicate who McHugh wants to be the GOP candidate? Click inside to see the Palm Center’s press release and possible context for the statement.