Tuesday, April 5, 2011

U.S. Navy panel: Gay sailor will not be discharged

A three member panel of U. S. Navy Officers voted 3-0 on Thursday in favor of retaining Petty Officer Derek Morado, who had been facing a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” disciplinary discharge hearing, more than a year after being told he would be discharged.

Morado’s hearing at the Naval Air Station in Lemoore, Calif., on Thursday began four months after President Barack Obama signed a law repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the 1996 ban on openly gay service members.

Morado, who joined the Navy at the age of 17, found himself facing a discharge 6 years later after someone anonymously outed him after seeing a photo of him kissing another man on his personal MySpace page in November of 2009.

The outing touched off the Navy’s investigation into his sexual orientation.

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