Army discharges gay soldier from Chautauqua County
Western New Yorker's remarks on ‘60 Minutes’ violated Pentagon policy
By Jerry Zremski NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF
Updated: 06/28/08 8:35 AM
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- Sgt. Darren Manzella served in Iraq as a medic.
WASHINGTON — Six months after Army Sgt. Darren Manzella, a Chautauqua County native, went on “60 Minutes” to say that he’s gay, the Army discharged him under its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Manzella was let go for “homosexual admission” effective June 10, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network announced Friday.
And the former Army medic said it never should have happened.
“My sexual orientation certainly didn’t make a difference when I treated injuries and saved lives in the streets of Baghdad,” said Manzella, who was sent to Iraq after disclosing his sexuality to a supervisor. “It shouldn’t be a factor in allowing me to continue to serve.”
Lt. Col. George Wright, an Army spokesman, confirmed that Manzella was discharged because of his sexuality. He said Manzella left the 1st Cavalry Division on or about April 28 and was on leave until his official discharge June 10.
Manzella, 30, grew up in Portland, Chautauqua County, where his parents, Nancy and Michael Manzella, operate a grape farm.
He enlisted in the Army in 2002 and first told a supervisor that he was gay in August 2006 while serving at Fort Hood, Texas. Three weeks later, his battalion commander said he had been investigated but the investigation had been dropped without finding any “proof of homosexuality.”
A month later, in late 2006, Manzella was redeployed to Iraq. In total, he spent more that two of his six years in the military in Iraq and Kuwait, winning the Combat Medal Badge and other awards.
Last year, he became one of the first members of the military to come out while on duty overseas, speaking to CBS’ “60 Minutes” while concluding an assignment in Kuwait.
He told The Buffalo News earlier this year that he decided to reveal his sexuality in hopes of ending the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which bars active-duty service members from disclosing that they are gay or from engaging in homosexual conduct.
“It’s an outdated policy, and I think that it unjustly keeps talented soldiers and personnel in the military from a lifestyle that really in no way would affect their work or their work performance,” he said.
But Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, a Michigan- based group that says it promotes sound military personnel policies, disagreed.
“The underlying premise is homosexuality is incompatible with military service,” she said.
Manzella said Friday that he received an official notice of his discharge in March, accompanied by a transcript of his “60 Minutes” interview and a story from the Associated Press.
His military lawyer told him there would be only one way to fight the discharge: by renouncing everything he said about his sexuality, which he was not willing to do.
Given his service record, he received an honorary discharge, meaning he will be eligible for veterans benefits.
Manzella is now living in Washington and working in a development job at Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which fights the policy that has resulted in the dismissal of at least 12,000 gay service members since 1994.
“I try not to take it personally,” Manzella said. “I look at it as a policy that made this happen.”
