DADT Claims Another Victim

Two new victims of the US military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” law have surfaced recently. I’ll have a post about Lieutenant Amy Brian tomorrow, but today let’s look at the case of 18-year-old Todd Belok.

"I have known I wanted to serve since early high school."

Todd Belok, student at George Washington University and former member of the school’s Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) program, knew that DADT meant he’d have to be officially in the closet while he was at University, but he didn’t count on informants from a frat party where he kissed his boyfriend, who had come to visit GWU for the weekend. Senior Nick Trimis and Freshman Dave Perry decided that they’d rather not have homos in their unit and reported the kiss, ending Belok’s career in the NROTC.

Both Trimis and Perry commented to the school’s newspaper.

“I am not homophobic, I do not dislike gays,” Perry said. “It was just an uncomfortable situation for other midshipmen.”

“I was hoping he would just leave so he could go to OTS (Officer Training School) later,” Perry said. “I wish I had just let it go so Belok would not have gotten kicked out.”

Rough translation: “I’m okay with fags as long as they don’t act like fags. Fuckin’ fags with their fag germs.”

“It was drilled into me for a good 13 weeks that if someone does something wrong you are supposed to say something,” said Trimis, who enlisted in the Marines before coming to GW to finish his education. “There are certain rules in the military and when you tell, this is the way it plays out, but it is unfortunate.”

One wonders whether Mr. Trimis reported the underage drinking occurring at this frat party. Even though it may not have been hurting anybody, rules are rules, you know. And that’s without even getting to the hooking up that was no doubt occurring. Mr. Trimis is a Mormon, so one would assume that he took umbrage to the straight couples getting it on.

Interesting wrinkle in the case of Todd Belok: Though the US Navy and NROTC actively discriminate against gay men and women, George Washington University has a policy that clearly bars such discrimination.

The University’s policy, however, states any group using its trademarks will not “discriminate against any persons or groups based on age, ancestry, belief, color, creed, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status or other illegal basis, or in any other way that would be a violation of University antidiscrimination policies.”

University spokeswoman Tracy Schario said, although the policies clash, the University supports and has upheld the federal law.

“These are very, very sensitive, delicate issues,” Schario said. “Unfortunately the military can discriminate based on sexual orientation.”

Federal law says that any federal money a university receives, for anything from financial aid to research grants, can be withdrawn if the school does not comply with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” or denies ROTC the right to recruit on campus.

Another translation from Matt: “The leadership at George Washington University, including Chairman of the Board W. Russell Ramsey and President Steven Knapp endorse discrimination as long as we get money for it.”

Pathetic.

Todd Belok, meanwhile, continues to hope for a career in the US Navy after DADT is overturned. Until then, he’s decided to work with the SLDN help the cause to repeal the US Government’s active discrimination.