Bisexual cadet to be dismissed from ROTC

Bisexual cadet to be dismissed from ROTC

Nguyen verbally notified, awaits word on discharge status

By Patrick Marantal

Daily Bruin Contributor

For Huong Nguyen, a bisexual ROTC cadet placed on leave after
revealing her sexual orientation, the light is finally appearing at
the end of a long tunnel of bureaucracy.

For nine months of uncertainty, Nguyen had been unsure of her
future with the military. Would the Secretary of the Army choose to
disenroll her, or allow her to stay and fulfill her dream of a
medical career in the Army?

On Thursday, Feb. 8, Nguyen received notice that her dream was
over. Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) Lt. Col. Michael
Graves, professor and chair of military science, notified Nguyen
verbally that she would be dismissed from ROTC.

"We knew what would happen," said Ali Beck, Nguyen’s partner and
editor in chief of TenPercent, UCLA’s gay, lesbian and bisexual
newsmagazine. "But there was always that hope that someone,
somewhere would say it was a stupid policy and not … enforce
it."

For the moment, Nguyen still awaits official, written
notification of her disenrollment from the program.

After revealing her bisexuality to Graves on May 8, 1995, Nguyen
was placed on a leave of absence, said ROTC spokesman Col. Paul
Kotakis.

Immediately after being placed on leave, Nguyen’s scholarship
and financial benefits were suspended, Nguyen said. Then, on-campus
ROTC officials scrutinized her case, Kotakis said, giving it a
preliminary look and a subsequent recommendation.

This recommendation was relayed to the regional headquarters,
and then sent to U.S. Army Cadet Command, Army ROTC’s national
headquarters. Nguyen’s case was then sent to the Pentagon for final
review.

After the review, the military decided not to force Nguyen to
pay back any scholarship money, Kotakis said. However, the
disenrollment proceedings will migrate back to the original site of
the incident, UCLA.

When the time comes, Graves will serve Nguyen with the official
papers removing her from the ROTC. However, Nguyen is a special
case, Kotakis said. She is simultaneous enrolled in both the ROTC
program and the Army Reserves.

"This formal notification closes (Nguyen’s) chapter in the Army
ROTC," Kotakis said. "(But) Graves must notify her reserve unit
which then becomes a separate action."

After Nguyen’s disenrollment with the ROTC is over, she must go
through similar proceedings with the reserves.

"(They will) notify the Army Reserve unit (and) then the
reserves will start discharge meetings,"Beck said.

For now, Nguyen and Beck are mostly concerned with the type of
discharge Nguyen receives. If she is given anything other than an
honorable discharge, it could hurt her career opportunities, Nguyen
said.

And final word on her discharge status could be months away,
Beck said.

But even as her case nears resolution, Nguyen finds herself as
involved in the issue of gays in the military as ever. In
particular, Nguyen and Beck have taken an interest in Chancellor
Charles Young’s stance on ROTC on-campus.

"It is ridiculous that every single university document has the
nondiscrimination policy on it," Beck said. "And yet a cadet in the
program is in jeopardy of losing their scholarship if they come
out."

Nguyen urged the university to remove the financial risk for
open gays in ROTC.

"(The university) can’t change immediate policy, but can help by
paying for scholarships," Nguyen said "This kind of commitment will
show that they support lesbians and gays and bisexuals."

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