Lez Keep It Real

Is it so wrong that a decorated military official who achieved accolade after accolade turned out to be gay?

According to the military it is:

The Washington Blade ~ A Wikipedia article about Maj. Alan Rogers, a gay soldier who was killed in January in Iraq, was apparently edited by someone in the Pentagon, who removed any mention that Rogers was gay.

The user on Monday redacted details about Rogers that appeared on the online encyclopedia site. Information that was deleted included Rogers’ sexual orientation; the soldier’s participation in American Veterans for Equal Rights, a group that works to change military policy toward gays; and the fact that Rogers’ death helped bring the U.S. military’s casualty toll in Iraq to 4,000.

Rob Pilaud, a patent agent and a friend of Rogers who attended the soldier’s funeral, restored the information to the Wikipedia article the next day. Pilaud was among Rogers’ friends who created the Wikipedia page.

The anonymous poster also provided the following comment in the “discussion” section about the article:

“Alan’s life was not about his sexual orientation but rather about the body of work he performed ministering to others and helping the defense of the country,” the poster wrote. “Quit trying to press an agenda that Alan wouldn’t have wanted made public just to suit your own ends.”

The IP address attached to the deletion of the details and the posted comments is 141.116.168.135. The address belongs to a computer from the office of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence (G-2) at the Pentagon. The office is headed by Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, who was present at Rogers’ funeral and presented the flag from Rogers’ coffin to his cousin, Cathy Long.

The Army’s public affairs office did not return a call seeking comment. READ MORE

If you aren’t familiar with Rogers, here’s a brief summary from Wikipedia:

Major Alan Greg Rogers (September 21, 1967 – January 27, 2008) was an ordained pastor, a US Army Major and Intelligence Officer, a civil rights activist in the gay, lesbian and bisexual military community and the first known gay combat fatality of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The subsequent coverage of his death in the media sparked a debate over the effect of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy and what information should be included in the biography of a gay military person killed in action.

Why does it have to be a secret? Like it or not, being gay is part of who Major Alan Glen Rogers was. Keeping that fact hidden is misleading to Americans and disrespectful to him.

What’s the big deal any way? Why would the military go to such great lengths to keep Rogers’ sexuality a secret? I have a guess.

Could it be because if word got out that people in the military can be successful and achieve greatness regardless of his or her sexual orientation, the military would have no ground on which to base their ludicrous theory that homosexuality is a threat to national security?

Could it be that success stories such as these in which a military official is proven to be a tremendous leader amongst his or her peers regardless of his or her sexual orientation may eventually help overturn “Don’t ask, don’t tell?”

I think so.

This kind of thing gets me so heated. When are we going to accept the fact that sexuality has no bearing on the way in which a person pulls a trigger on a machine gun?

The military knows that it doesn’t matter. And the truth is that they don’t care who takes the bullet or who fires the missile. They just don’t want America to become comfortable with gays, because once that happens it will become a non-issue. And stories about war heroes who happen to be gay won’t help their cause in painting homosexuality as debilitating and harmful.

That is why these kind of stories are the ones that need to be heard the most.

the washington blade, major alan glen rogers, don’t ask don’t tell