Decorated Gay Soldier Unlikely to Stay in Army
An Army sergeant awarded a Purple Heart after he was wounded in Iraq said in an interview that he would like to remain in the military as an openly gay soldier, but he acknowledged that he will probably be discharged under the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Sgt. Robert Stout, 23, says he has not faced trouble from fellow soldiers and would like to stay if not for the military’s policy that gay service members keep their sexual orientation a secret.
Stout, of Utica, Ohio, is believed to be the first gay soldier wounded in Iraq to publicly discuss his sexuality, said Aaron Belkin of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at UC Santa Barbara.
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