1115.org

It looked for a while like the U.S. Military had moved from a policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Listen”.

The story of Army Sergeant Darren Manzella suggests, though, that it’s much more complicated. More like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Listen, But Don’t Tell The Media”:

Decorated Army Sergeant Darren Manzella has been discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law banning lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans from military service, effective June 10. The Iraq war veteran was one of the first openly gay active duty service members to speak with the media while serving inside a war zone. In December 2007, Manzella was profiled by the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes. He told correspondent Lesley Stahl that he served openly during much of his time in the Army, with the full support of his colleagues and command.

Excerpts from the 60 Minutes interview:

Army Sergeant Darren Manzella, a medical liaison for his division, is in Kuwait on his second deployment of the Iraq war. He spoke to 60 Minutes without permission.

Manzella served as a medic with a field artillery unit in Baghdad back in 2005, earning a combat medal for rendering treatment under fire. “I’ve treated everything from blast injuries to gunshot wounds,” he tells Stahl.

Manzella was out to his Army buddies and even introduced them to his boyfriend A.J. But then, he started getting anonymous e-mails, saying he was being watched, and warning him to “turn down the flame.”

“As in flamingly gay?” Stahl asks.

“Yes,” Manzella says.

He went for help to his commanding officer, and in the process, told him - as in don’t ask don’t tell - that he was gay. The officer in turn told Manzella he’d have to report him.

“He did report me, yes,” Manzella says. “I had to go see my battalion commander, who read me my rights.”
[…]
Manzella didn’t hold anything back in the investigation, submitting photos of himself and A.J., and a video of a road trip, including passionate kissing. But when the investigation ended, Manzella says he was told to go back to work. “There was no evidence of homosexuality and go back to work,” he says.

“Wait a minute. You’ve given them photographs of you and A.J.,” Stahl remarks.

“Yes, and then they’re like, ‘Go back to work. You’re not gay,” Manzella says.

“So, no one ever said anything to you about the — I don’t even know what word to use, absurdity, confusing response?” Stahl asks.

“The closest thing that I was given by my superiors was, “I don’t care if you’re gay or not.”

Cholene Espinoza was an Air Force Captain who flew combat missions. Now she works with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a group pushing to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“Darren is in a critical field. He’s a medic. His commander needs him,” Espinoza says. “He’s a known quantity. He gets along with others. He does what he’s supposed to. He goes above and beyond. Why do I want to lose Darren?”

Espinoza, who’s now a captain for a commercial airline, left the Air Force after eight years so she could live openly as a lesbian.

“You’re saying that you think these commanders are looking the other way?” Stahl asks.

“I think they have to,” Espinoza says.

Unless you open your big mouth to the national media. Then all bets are off.