Navy Moves to Dismiss Gay Officer
A three-member U.S. Navy administrative panel Wednesday recommended that the secretary of the Navy dismiss a petty officer who in November informed his division officer he was a homosexual.
The petty officer, Mark Philips, had failed in a late-hour bid Tuesday to persuade a federal judge in Seattle to issue a temporary restraining order to halt the discharge hearing.
“The reason for the discharge was his declaration of homosexuality,” said Navy Cmdr. Bob Anderson, a spokesman for the Seattle Naval Station at Sandpoint, Wash.
Anderson said the recommendation will go to the secretary of the Navy in Washington, D.C., and would then be forwarded to the U.S. Justice Department.
On Jan. 29, President Clinton directed the military to review its ban on homosexuals by July 15 and instructed the military to process discharge cases already under way.
Clinton authorized the attorney general to suspend final discharge of service members pending the review, allowing them to be removed from active duty and placed in standby reserve.
Philips, who joined the Navy in 1988, received machinist’s mate and nuclear-reactor training and was assigned to duty aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Nimitz.
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