------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 31, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
BUSH TO PROMOTE ANTI-GAY GENERAL By Leslie Feinberg Maj. Gen. Robert T. Clark is up for promotion. Another star to add to the growing constellation on his U.S. Army officer uniform. The fact that he commanded a base where a soldier labeled gay was beaten to death with a baseball bat after a long period of widespread harassment has not seemed to hurt his upward mobility. Clark's shot at hiking himself up another rung on the Pentagon ladder is aided by the fact that President George W. Bush himself nominated him for promotion to the Army's second-highest rank of lieutenant general. Clark was commander of Fort Campbell, Ky., in July 1999 when a 21-year-old soldier--PFC Barry Winchell--was bludgeoned as he slept in his barracks. Winchell had endured six months of harassment after he began dating a transgender woman, Calpernia Adams. In the months after the brutal slaying, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network reported scores of calls from gay GIs at Fort Campbell who feared for their own lives. More than 200 soldiers were discharged from the base over the rest of the year--many voluntarily out of terror. (Gay & Lesbian Times, Oct. 17) Investigations after Winchell's killing turned up a pattern of prevalent anti-gay harassment--graffiti, verbal and physical abuse. SLDN Executive Director C. Dixon Osburn charges, "In the wake of Winchell's murder, Gen. Clark demonstrated the poorest leadership, issuing no statements against harassment, refusing to speak with or meet the parents of PFC Winchell or to reassure base soldiers that harassment would not be tolerated." Yet his brass still gleams in the eyes of Bush--and Democrats, too. The Senate Armed Forces Committee refused to allow Patricia Kutteles, Winchell's mother, to testify against Clark. It's a Democrat-controlled committee. In the face of protests by lesbian, gay, bi and trans and women's rights organizations, they voted to hold a closed-door confirmation hearing. Lest anyone hope that a Democrat will lead the charge against the bigoted brass, don't forget that it was Democrat Bill Clinton who made acceptance of gays in the military a campaign promise in his first 1992 election bid, then surrendered to the admirals and generals once he had hunkered down in the White House. He proposed a "compromise" that resulted in stepped-up witch hunts against lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans GIs. Both houses of Congress, it should be recalled, were controlled by Democrats at that time. It's important to fight against the Pentagon's official policy. The biggest employer in the United States says it's okay to discriminate against and wage war on its own lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans GIs. But a change in that biased policy won't create a kinder, gentler killing machine. Racist, sexist, anti-gay? That's basic military indoctrination to create a Rambo mentality. Be all that you can be: Join the ranks of the anti-war movement. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
