Sailor With AIDS, Who Won Retirement Benefits, Dies

Just last week, the Navy granted Petty Officer 3rd Class Bryon G. Kinney medical retirement benefits--benefits denied him when he was honorably discharged in June after having been diagnosed as suffering from AIDS.

On Monday, four days after he was admitted to the Navy Hospital in Balboa Park, Kinney died of complications from the incurable disease.

Navy Secretary John Lehman notified the Naval Base here last Thursday that Kinney, 28, would be granted a medical retirement, despite an administrative board’s unanimous decision that Kinney was a homosexual and should be discharged without medical disability benefits, said Julie Swan, a civilian public affairs officer for the Navy.

The board had used Kinney’s medical records to accuse him of homosexuality.

Before Lehman intervened to overturn the discharge and grant the benefits, Kinney, a medical corpsman for seven years, had appealed the discharge and filed suit against the Navy.

“We won the case but lost the client,” said Thomas Homann, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney, who worked on Kinney’s lawsuit.

Lehman’s decision means that Kinney’s parents, who live in New York state, “will receive all the survivor benefits of any person who dies while on active duty,” Swan said.

Naval officials here could not explain why Lehman reversed the administrative board’s decision. However, a Navy spokesman said Tuesday that the secretary’s action signaled no change in the Navy’s policy regarding acquired immune deficiency syndrome or homosexuality.

That reversal was an “isolated, one-time situation,” said Lt. Gene Elliot, spokesman for the southwest region naval medical command.

No Word on Policy Change

“At the time Secretary Lehman announced that decision to allow 100% disability to Bryon Kinney, there was no announcement regarding a change in policy,” Elliot said. “At this point, no one has uttered a word about re-evaluation or reassessment of the policy.”

AIDS and homosexuality are separate issues handled under two separate Navy policies, said Navy spokesman Lt. Stephen Pietropaoli. AIDS is a medical issue, he said, and it is handled like any other debilitating disease.

He added, however, that homosexuality directly violates Navy policy, which states that “homosexuality is incompatible with military life and seriously impairs the accomplishment of the military mission,” he added.

Discharge Stalled

Even before Lehman granted disability retirement benefits to Kinney, the secretary had placed the petty officer’s discharge “on hold,” because Lehman “decided that it would be more appropriate to proceed through the disability evaluation system,” Pietropaoli said.

Only two of the 100 members of the armed services who have been treated for AIDS have been denied an honorable discharge with no medical retirement benefits, according to a Defense Department spokesman.