The Region - News from Aug. 18, 1985

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against the Navy to block it from discharging without medical retirement benefits a San Diego sailor who is dying of AIDS. A Naval administrative board in June found that Petty Officer 3rd Class Bryon G. Kinney, 28, a medical corpsman for seven years, was a homosexual and therefore fraudulently enlisted in the Navy. Homosexuality violates Navy policy, and anyone found to be gay is processed for discharge, said Julie Swan, a civilian Navy spokeswoman. Kinney was given a general discharge under honorable conditions, and will not receive medical or disability benefits through the Navy, Swan said. Although the Department of the Navy has approved the findings, Kinney has not officially been discharged because he is hospitalized at the Naval Hospital in Balboa Park, she said. San Diego ACLU legal director Greg Marshall said his organization, along with the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers’ Guild, is using Kinney’s case to force the Navy to award medical benefits to AIDS victims on the same basis as any other terminally ill service member.