POINT MUGU : Gay Worker Will Return to Naval Base

A gay civilian employee at the Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station on Wednesday accepted an offer to return to work at the base, six months after he left his post claiming that he was harassed because he is homosexual, officials said.

Thomas A. Swann, 35, accepted the offer to return to the base beginning next week after a six-month leave. Swann claimed that he was being harassed and physically threatened by co-workers because of his sexual orientation and because of his open support for a repeal of the ban against gays in the military.

The Port Hueneme man worked at the base for 12 years as a missile program analyst before voluntarily leaving his post last June. Swann, who is being represented in the case by the American Civil Liberties Union, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Alan Friel and Jon Davidson, Swann’s two ACLU lawyers, did not return phone calls.

According to Alan Alpers, a Navy spokesman, Swann will be reassigned from the Strike Systems Department, where he claims he was harassed, to the base’s comptroller’s office. He will retain his civilian GS-11 civil service rank and will earn from $35,300 to $46,200 annually.

“This is not the Navy finding a ‘make-work’ job. As everyone knows, we are in a downsizing mode here,” Alpers said. “It took awhile to find a position at that level with a similar level of responsibility. Believe me, jobs like this just aren’t sitting around here unfilled.”

Alpers said the Navy offered to place Swann in the new job as part of his rights provided under the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The act guarantees that employers must provide “reasonable accommodations” to employees suffering from certain physical or mental disabilities, which in Swann’s case includes the alleged harassment.