Pentagon Loses 9-Year Battle to Bar Gay Army Sergeant

The Supreme Court Monday ended the Pentagon’s nine-year effort to bar Sgt. Perry Watkins from the Army because of his homosexuality.

The justices refused to hear the Bush Administration appeal of a ruling last year which concluded the Army waited too long before discharging Watkins for homosexuality. Beginning in 1967, when he was drafted, Watkins repeatedly said he was a homosexual. But it was not until 1981 that the Army sought to force him out.

“This shows it is possible to fight the Army and win,” said attorney James Lobsenz, who represented Watkins in the long-running case.

But the Watkins case was not the landmark victory for gay soldiers that it once appeared it could be, since the case hinged on the fact Watkins could prove that his homosexuality had been revealed to officers and ignored.

“They tolerated him for 15 years,” said Watkins’ attorney. “Hopefully, this means Sgt. Watkins can now resume his military career.”

In 1988, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, on a 2-1 vote, said the Army violated Watkins’ constitutional rights by discharging him for homosexuality. The court opinion, written by Judge William Norris, struck down the Army’s anti-gay regulations as a violation of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal treatment for all.

Gay rights activists hailed the decision as their most important judicial victory ever. But shortly afterward, the full appeals court withdrew the decision and later issued a much more limited ruling.

In that second decision, the appeals court said the Army could not discharge Watkins for homosexuality in 1981 when it had repeatedly ignored his earlier admissions that he was gay.

In its appeal, the Bush Administration said the Army should be permitted to exclude all homosexuals. But without comment Monday, the justices let stand the second appeals court decision. (U.S. Army vs. Watkins, 89-1806).

Watkins, 42, of Tacoma, Wash., was discharged in 1984 and has been trying to get back into the service since then.

The Supreme Court has never ruled directly on whether government discrimination against homosexuals violates the Constitution’s guarantee of “equal protection of the laws.” On several occasions, however, it has refused to hear appeals from soldiers who were discharged for homosexuality.