New Twist in Bisexual Sailor's Murder -- Victim's Aunt Says Suspect Feared Being Outed

The alleged complications in this case underscore the danger of: 1) the closet, 2) that DADT reinforces the closet and foments fear of being shoved out of it to a deadly level, and 3) the military engages in secrecy because of the homophobia that instituted Don't Ask, Don't Tell in the first place.. (Dallas Voice):

The aunt of August Provost, a bisexual Navy seaman from Houston found murdered at Camp Pendleton last month, told Dallas Voice this week that the family has received information suggesting that her nephew’s killer is a gay sailor who somehow feared being outed by Provost.

Rose Roy, of Beaumont, the sister of Provost’s father, said in a phone interview Tuesday, July 14 that she’s “not at liberty” to identify the source who provided the information to the family. But Roy said the source told the family Provost had a heated argument with the suspect a week before his murder, and that the sailor now being held as a person of interest by the Navy has a history of mental illness.

“This guy went the extra mile to make sure that my nephew would never be able to speak about his [the killer’s] sexuality,” Roy said. “My nephew died for reasons other than what the military is saying.”

If this is the case, then it's not a hate crime, as the military asserts, but the inquiries by a member of Congress for clarity on the matter are going unanswered.

“What I know about the murder is what the Navy so far has told us, which is not very much,” [U.S. Rep. Bob] Filner told Dallas Voice. “I think they ought to be far more open and far more in detail. They keep saying they know it’s not a hate crime, but they don’t give me enough information for me to agree with that or not. If they don’t do it right, we will have an independent congressional inquiry. There are several of us in Congress who are calling for that, and we’ll figure out a way to do it if we need to.”

What has been particularly troubling is Time magazine's framing of it. Mark Thompson, in the article "Gays in the Military: Does a Sailor's Murder Signal Deeper Problems?," muses that the murder of Seaman Provost is a some sort of sign that the rank-and-file heterosexuals in the military are not ready to serve with openly gay and lesbian colleagues.

Even as Pentagon lawyers begin trying to ease the "Don't ask, don't tell" prohibition on gays serving openly in the U.S. military, the murder last week of an apparently gay sailor at California's Camp Pendleton has raised new questions over the readiness of the armed forces to accept openly homosexual personnel.

Seaman August Provost of Houston was shot and killed while standing nighttime guard at his base on June 30. His body was found at about 3 a.m. after his guard shack had been torched, apparently to destroy evidence surrounding his slaying, according to Navy officials. Provost was gay, according to his family, gay activists and his MySpace page, and had reportedly "come out" to some of his Navy colleagues. Two California Democratic members of Congress, Susan Davis and Bob Filner, have asked the military to investigate whether Provost's sexual orientation was the reason for his murder. Local gay activists have also asked for such a probe, and are planning a candlelight vigil outside Camp Pendleton's gates this Friday, several hours after memorial services for Provost are to be held in Texas.

...The Navy has said there is no indication that the 28-year-old sailor was the target of a hate crime, but officials also decline to specify a suspected motive. "As it stands right now, we have no indication that there is any tie to what may or may not have been his sexuality," a senior Navy officer in San Diego said Monday afternoon. This officer expressed frustration with blog and media reports saying Provost had been brutalized -- in addition to being shot. "He did suffer gunshot wounds, and there was a fire in a pretty clear attempt to destroy evidence," he said. "But he was not bound, he was not gagged and he was not mutilated." At least two suspects -- both sailors -- have been questioned. One remains in custody and is expected to be charged.

This is madness. There are many stories of gay and lesbian servicemembers already serving openly, with their colleagues and commanding officers ignoring DADT. The problem with the Provost murder is not his sexual orientation, but the fact that the military may have someone with extreme homicidal tendencies within its ranks that directed them at Provost. After all, the Pentagon has allowed the number of felons, gang members and white supremacists to make its recruiting numbers; it doesn't take a rocket scientist to conclude that this would cause problem, if not in this specific case, other ones. And the murder victim's sexual orientation is not a reason to keep gays and lesbians from serving, it's a matter of prosecuting those who harass, maim and kill.

Related:

• Congressman on Provost murder and DADT: the military 'doesn't want that discussion to take place'

• Sheila Jackson-Lee to call for Congressional investigation into the murder of sailor August Provost 

• Time article mulls connection between slain sailor's murder to queasiness over repealing DADT 

• Sailor killed at Camp Pendleton may have been target of hate crime 

Follow Pam Spaulding on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Pam_Spaulding

Comments

[superstition]

And yet another twist:

"Sailor Accused of Murdering August Provost Commits Suicide"
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/12313/sailor-accused-of-murdering-august-provost-commits-suicide

[superstition]

It's madness with strategic pseudo-sanity behind it. There is a movement underway to change public opinion on DADT. The fact that even majorities of conservatives and church-goers -- majorities in all measured categories and a huge majority of Democrats -- want the policy to end is a big problem for an administration that has:

1. Removed repeal language from its website, only to put it back later in modified form and then stop using repeal and other firm language when discussing the policy.

2. (Gibbs) Gone from an emphatic one word answer, to pretending to not have the answers, to whatever obscurantism he's using presently ("modification" appears to be the new tack).

3. Recycled the venerable "we need time to study (how to go about ending) it" stonewall.

4. Argued in favor of DADT (and DOMA) at the Supreme Court.

5, (Gates) Tried to humanize the policy with nebulous modification euphemisms.

6. Backtracked completely from clear and emphatic campaign condemnations of anti-gay policies to support of those policies. How a person can say sexual orientation has no bearing on one's qualification to serve and how that person can call DOMA "abhorrent" and then argue for both of those to the Supreme Court is...

7. Refused to stop the implementation of the policy from day one and therefore has chosen to sacrifice the careers of 328 service members on the alter of homophobia. http://www.sldn.org/

[superstition]

8. Refused to support the bills (Tauscher...) and amendments to end DADT -- despite all the rhetoric about wanting Congress to end DADT. Not only was there lack of support, the opposition apparently was more aggressive than "passivity" (Hastings' amendment withdrawal, for instance).

The big question is "why". Fear of Republican resurgence due to backlash is laughable given the huge majority of the public that wants the policy ended (including most conservatives!). The "distraction" canard is also laughable, particularly due to all the Republican affairs in the media and their very low poll numbers. Instead of arguing in favor of DOMA, the time was politically ripe for its repeal. DADT standing is even more ridiculous, because of the overwhelming public opposition to its existence.

The longer we wait -- the more the administration chooses to defend anti-gay policies, the more distant the possibility of those policies being ended becomes.

Obama and his fellow Dems were elected with a mandate for change, not minor change either. The Republicans are the weakest they've been for a very long time, and they're going to recover because our two-party paradigm is so entrenched. Every delay... every firing of another gay person to satisfy someone else's bigotry... every ruthless use of a gay veteran as a pawn in petty politics... is an example of the erosion of that mandate. With that erosion comes not only the loss of hope, but the prospect of progress.

[superstition]

I didn't have room to also note that the distraction point works both ways.

Distractions can enable changes to be made.

The affairs and questionable sexual behavior of so many prominent Republicans (Vitter, Sanford, Foley, Craig, Ensign, Gingrich, Giuliani, et cetera) has been cited as a distraction (considering the details of such affairs are being made public simultaneously) that works in favor of ending DOMA.

Why are so many controversial things done on Fridays? While it's ludicrous to argue that continuing to fire troops for bigotry is rational because of business, it's also worth pointing out that if the Republicans had nothing else to talk about --- nothing else to oppose, they would make ending DADT a bigger issue than if there are other more politically expedient targets available.

So, the "too busy" excuse fails doubly.