GAY SAILOR BEATEN TO DEATH BY SHIPMATE, NAVY SAYS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 10, 1993                   TAG: 9301100011
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO                                LENGTH: Medium
GAY SAILOR BEATEN TO DEATH BY SHIPMATE, NAVY SAYS
Confronted with charges of a cover-up, Navy officials have confirmed that a sailor about to be discharged for being a homosexual was beaten to death more than two months ago by a shipmate.
Navy officials in Japan said that Seaman Allen R. Schindler, 22, may have been a victim of gay-bashing, killed by a fellow sailor assigned to the Belleau Wood, an amphibious assault ship whose home port is in Japan.
Lt. Kenneth Ross, Navy spokesman in Hawaii, refused to discuss what provoked the killing except to say that gay-bashing "is also being looked at as a possible motive." Presently, Navy prosecutors were simply viewing the case as a murder, he said.
Terry M. Helvey, 20, an airman aboard the Belleau Wood, has been charged with the murder of Schindler. He is awaiting the start of the military's version of a preliminary hearing.
At the time of his death, Schindler, a radioman, was being processed for an administrative discharge because he was an admitted homosexual, Ross said. Family members said that Schindler, a four-year Navy veteran and native of Chicago Heights, Ill., joined the Navy despite its no-homosexual policy because of a desire to serve his country.
Coming as the incoming Clinton administration is calling for an end to the military's ban on gays, the case is stirring up strong feelings. Gay rights advocates are urging the president-elect to take swift action to legitimize the presence of homosexuals in the military, and have accused the Navy of trying to cover up news of the killing. Although the killing occurred in October, the Navy waited until gay rights groups demonstrated in front of the Pentagon in December before announcing a few details of the crime.
Schindler was beaten to death in a public restroom three blocks from the Navy base at Sasebo, Japan, on Oct. 27 at 11:19 p.m., Ross said. Officials have released few details of the incident, refusing even to disclose the cause of death or whether a weapon was used.
Keywords:
FATALITY

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB