Alan G. Rogers
Encyclopedia
Alan Greg Rogers was an ordained pastor, a U.S. Army Major and Intelligence Officer
, a civil rights
activist in the gay
, lesbian
and bisexual military community and the first known gay combat fatality of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The subsequent coverage of his death in the media sparked a debate over the effect of the military's "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" (DADT) policy and what information should be included in the biography of a gay military person killed in action
.
to Hampton, Florida
, near Gainesville
.
Rogers attended Hampton Elementary School, and ultimately graduated from Bradford County High School in Starke, Florida
, in 1985.
Rogers joined Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church in Lincoln City, Florida
, and was ordained a pastor as a young man.
While in high school, Rogers was commander of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps
program and elected by his classmates as the "most intellectual."
After high school, Rogers joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps
program at the University of Florida
and then accepted a commission in the United States Army
upon graduation with a Bachelor of Arts
degree in religion
in 1995. Rogers later completed a Master of Arts
degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix
through distance learning.
Rogers's father, George, died of a heart attack in 2000, and his mother, Genny, died of kidney
-related problems two weeks later. Rogers preached at his mother's funeral.
In 2001, Rogers commanded a military intelligence company based out of Waegwan, South Korea. During his tenure as company commander, Rogers emphasized unit morale and cohesiveness, often organizing company wide get togethers and functions.
In 2004, Rogers moved to Washington, D.C.
and, in 2005, earned a Master of Public Policy
degree from Georgetown University
. Only 25 Army officers were accepted into the program. Rogers's thesis adviser was Mark Nadel, who described Rogers as "an officer with leadership qualities that made him think, 'This is a guy I'm going to hear from in 10 years, and he's going to be a general.'" Rogers's thesis examined how the US military’s DADT policy affected recruitment and retention for military officers. In recognition of his achievements at Georgetown, Rogers gained an internship at the Pentagon serving the deputy secretary of defense, Gordon R. England
.
Beginning in October 2004, Rogers served as Treasurer of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER). On January 16, 2005, Rogers received an award from the organization for his service at a ceremony held at Dupont Grill. Rogers also attended events supporting the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
(SLDN), which works to end the DADT policy.
Rogers expressed his opinion on the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy in his Master's thesis, written in 2005 shortly before he was deployed to Iraq and reportedly killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) while on foot patrol: "Today’s current policy on gays in the military seems to rest on many faulty assumptions – namely that homosexuals will jeopardize unit cohesiveness. My research has been unable to justify that position and has found that the opposite is more true. Denying service members the right to serve freely and openly violates basic dignity and respect of the human experience and puts our national security at risk."
In June 2006, Rogers provided the opening prayer for a same-sex wedding ceremony
. Rogers reportedly expressed "an intensely deep loneliness that stemmed from his inability to have both a [same-sex] relationship ... and the military career he also loved so much."
In July 2007, Rogers was deployed to Iraq. Friends organized a send-off party in his honor on July 14, 2007, held at the Fabulous Bed & Breakfast in Northwest Washington, D.C.
Rogers's commanding officer in Iraq was Col. Thomas Fernandez. Rogers communicated via e-mail with many of his friends during his deployment, and two of his friends from AVER received e-mail from Rogers the day before he died.
while on foot patrol in Baghdad, on January 27, 2008. On January 30, 2008, friends of Rogers established the Alan G. Rogers Memorial Scholarship Fund.
A funeral service was held for Rogers at Ebenezer Baptist Church on February 8, 2008. In honor of Rogers, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist
ordered the Florida and U.S. flags be flown at half-staff
at the Bradford County Courthouse
, Hampton City Hall and the Florida State Capitol
. Family members later expressed that "we really didn't know about [Rogers being gay] until after his death. " Rogers' beneficiary from Florida later stated that he knew Rogers was gay, but felt it had "no more relevance than I'm straight."
Rogers was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery
on March 14, 2008, in Section 60, at Gravesite 8558. About 200 people attended the service, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, Army Lt. Gen. John F. Kimmons, active duty military, both enlisted and officers, Rogers's friends and family from Florida, and Rogers's friends in northern Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Also in attendance were a dozen or more gay active duty military personnel.
publicity, initially on MSNBC
, in the Washington Post and on National Public Radio's Morning Edition
. However, initial reports omitted Rogers's sexual orientation
or anything related to the subject.
The Post and NPR reports coincided with the "grim milestone" that the U.S. Military death toll reached 4,000 dead. Rogers's death and funeral gained further media attention when it was revealed that he was gay and worked to end the military's DADT policy.
Initially, members of the national media were well aware of Rogers's sexual orientation, yet it was widely reported that Rogers was not married and left no children. While technically accurate, some members of the LGBT
community viewed the statement as an intentional distortion and dodge of Rogers's sexual orientation.
Rogers's cousin, Cathy Long of Ocala, Fla., said, "The Post did a wonderful job. Personally, as far as the family is concerned, we really didn't know about this until after his death. It was in the back of our minds, but we didn't discuss it." Cathy Long accepted Rogers's flag at the major's funeral. "I really feel Alan was a lot more than that," said Cathy Long who called the Washington Blade story "self-serving whatever their cause is and that they're trying to use Alan to do that."
The Washington Post Ombudsman
, Deborah Howell
, stated that the editors of the Post deliberated the question of whether to disclose his sexual orientation and ultimately made a decision not to include such information.
The Army asked that Rogers's sexual orientation not be disclosed, and the Army presented it as a concern of the family.
The Washington Blade reported on the Post's decision to change the story and included more details about Rogers's activities and friends in the LGBT community. Subsequently, Howell of the Washington Post, citing Rogers's apparent feelings on DADT, wrote a column admitting that the Post's article "would have been richer" had it disclosed his sexual orientation and activities in the GLBT community.
On March 31, 2008, an anonymous
attempt was made to remove information relating to Rogers's sexual orientation from the present Wikipedia
article. The IP address
associated with the attempt corresponds with the IP address for the office of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence (G-2) at the Pentagon
, currently headed by Lt. Gen. John Kimmons. Kimmons attended Rogers's funeral and presented the U.S. flag from Rogers’s coffin to a family member. The Army subsequently denied that the IP address associated with the changes "necessarily belongs to any one specific office."
The August 4, 2008, issue of The New Yorker
magazine published a lengthy profile of Rogers, and the larger issues surrounding the DADT debate spurred on by his death. The story quotes Colonel Mike Hardy, who worked with Major Rogers at the Pentagon, as saying, "He did not make any moves to be remembered as a gay soldier. Nowhere in those phone calls home did he say, 'let everyone know that I died a proud gay officer.'" Ben McGrath, the author of the article, then comments, "Of course, being a proud gay officer is tantamount, under the current military policy, to being a retired gay officer with no pension."
On December 18, 2010, the U.S. Senate passed a law ending the DADT policy, which is expected to be signed by President Barack Obama
.
Intelligence officer
An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile and/or analyze information which is of use to that organization...
, a civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activist in the gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
and bisexual military community and the first known gay combat fatality of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The subsequent coverage of his death in the media sparked a debate over the effect of the military's "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" (DADT) policy and what information should be included in the biography of a gay military person killed in action
Killed in action
Killed in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...
.
Early life and education
At the age of 3, Rogers was adopted by George and Genny Rogers and was their only child. In 1977, the Rogers family moved from New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to Hampton, Florida
Hampton, Florida
Hampton is a city in Bradford County, Florida, United States. The population was 431 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S...
, near Gainesville
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...
.
Rogers attended Hampton Elementary School, and ultimately graduated from Bradford County High School in Starke, Florida
Starke, Florida
Starke is a city in Bradford County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,593 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 5,769 ....
, in 1985.
Rogers joined Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church in Lincoln City, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, and was ordained a pastor as a young man.
While in high school, Rogers was commander of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps
Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps
The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps is a Federal program sponsored by the United States Armed Forces in high schools across the United States...
program and elected by his classmates as the "most intellectual."
Military career and adult life
Reserve Officers' Training Corps
The Reserve Officers' Training Corps is a college-based, officer commissioning program, predominantly in the United States. It is designed as a college elective that focuses on leadership development, problem solving, strategic planning, and professional ethics.The U.S...
program at the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
and then accepted a commission in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
upon graduation with a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
in 1995. Rogers later completed a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix
University of Phoenix
The University of Phoenix is a for-profit institution of higher learning. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apollo Group Inc. which is publicly traded , an S&P 500 corporation based in Phoenix, Arizona...
through distance learning.
Rogers's father, George, died of a heart attack in 2000, and his mother, Genny, died of kidney
Kidney
The kidneys, organs with several functions, serve essential regulatory roles in most animals, including vertebrates and some invertebrates. They are essential in the urinary system and also serve homeostatic functions such as the regulation of electrolytes, maintenance of acid–base balance, and...
-related problems two weeks later. Rogers preached at his mother's funeral.
In 2004, Rogers moved to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and, in 2005, earned a Master of Public Policy
Master of Public Policy
The Master of Public Policy , one of several public policy degrees, is a master's level professional degree that provides training in policy analysis and program evaluation at public policy schools. The MPP program places a focus on the systematic analysis of issues related to public policy and the...
degree from Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
. Only 25 Army officers were accepted into the program. Rogers's thesis adviser was Mark Nadel, who described Rogers as "an officer with leadership qualities that made him think, 'This is a guy I'm going to hear from in 10 years, and he's going to be a general.'" Rogers's thesis examined how the US military’s DADT policy affected recruitment and retention for military officers. In recognition of his achievements at Georgetown, Rogers gained an internship at the Pentagon serving the deputy secretary of defense, Gordon R. England
Gordon R. England
Gordon Richard England is an American businessman who served as the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense and twice as United States Secretary of the Navy in the administration of U.S. President George W...
.
Beginning in October 2004, Rogers served as Treasurer of the Washington, D.C. chapter of the American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER). On January 16, 2005, Rogers received an award from the organization for his service at a ceremony held at Dupont Grill. Rogers also attended events supporting the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is a non-profit legal services, watchdog, and policy organization founded in the United States in 1993. It is dedicated to ending discrimination and harassment of gay and lesbian U.S. military personnel negatively affected by the "Don't ask, don't tell"...
(SLDN), which works to end the DADT policy.
Rogers expressed his opinion on the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy in his Master's thesis, written in 2005 shortly before he was deployed to Iraq and reportedly killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) while on foot patrol: "Today’s current policy on gays in the military seems to rest on many faulty assumptions – namely that homosexuals will jeopardize unit cohesiveness. My research has been unable to justify that position and has found that the opposite is more true. Denying service members the right to serve freely and openly violates basic dignity and respect of the human experience and puts our national security at risk."
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
. Rogers reportedly expressed "an intensely deep loneliness that stemmed from his inability to have both a [same-sex] relationship ... and the military career he also loved so much."
In July 2007, Rogers was deployed to Iraq. Friends organized a send-off party in his honor on July 14, 2007, held at the Fabulous Bed & Breakfast in Northwest Washington, D.C.
Rogers's commanding officer in Iraq was Col. Thomas Fernandez. Rogers communicated via e-mail with many of his friends during his deployment, and two of his friends from AVER received e-mail from Rogers the day before he died.
Death and afterward
According to an Army report, Rogers was killed by an improvised explosive deviceImprovised explosive device
An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...
while on foot patrol in Baghdad, on January 27, 2008. On January 30, 2008, friends of Rogers established the Alan G. Rogers Memorial Scholarship Fund.
A funeral service was held for Rogers at Ebenezer Baptist Church on February 8, 2008. In honor of Rogers, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist
Charlie Crist
Charles Joseph "Charlie" Crist, Jr. is an American politician who was the 44th Governor of Florida. Prior to his election as governor, Crist previously served as Florida State Senator, Education Commissioner, and Attorney General...
ordered the Florida and U.S. flags be flown at half-staff
Half-staff
Half-staff is the American term for to describe a flag flying a flag below the summit of the flagpole . The rest of the English-speaking world uses the term half-mast. Technically the flag should be flown one breadth lower to allow for the invisible flag of death...
at the Bradford County Courthouse
Old Bradford County Courthouse
The Old Bradford County Courthouse is a historic courthouse in Starke, Florida. It is located at 209 West Call Street, off U.S. Route 301. On December 27, 1974, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places...
, Hampton City Hall and the Florida State Capitol
Florida State Capitol
The Florida State Capitol, in Tallahassee, Florida, USA, is the state capitol of the U.S. state of Florida. The building is an architecturally and historically significant building, having been listed on the National Register of Historic Places....
. Family members later expressed that "we really didn't know about [Rogers being gay] until after his death. " Rogers' beneficiary from Florida later stated that he knew Rogers was gay, but felt it had "no more relevance than I'm straight."
Rogers was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
on March 14, 2008, in Section 60, at Gravesite 8558. About 200 people attended the service, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, Army Lt. Gen. John F. Kimmons, active duty military, both enlisted and officers, Rogers's friends and family from Florida, and Rogers's friends in northern Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Also in attendance were a dozen or more gay active duty military personnel.
National media coverage of Rogers's funeral
Rogers's funeral gained national mediaMass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
publicity, initially on MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
, in the Washington Post and on National Public Radio's Morning Edition
Morning Edition
Morning Edition is an American radio news program produced and distributed by National Public Radio . It airs weekday mornings and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 05:00 to 09:00 ET, with feeds and updates as required until noon...
. However, initial reports omitted Rogers's sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
or anything related to the subject.
The Post and NPR reports coincided with the "grim milestone" that the U.S. Military death toll reached 4,000 dead. Rogers's death and funeral gained further media attention when it was revealed that he was gay and worked to end the military's DADT policy.
Initially, members of the national media were well aware of Rogers's sexual orientation, yet it was widely reported that Rogers was not married and left no children. While technically accurate, some members of the LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
community viewed the statement as an intentional distortion and dodge of Rogers's sexual orientation.
Rogers's cousin, Cathy Long of Ocala, Fla., said, "The Post did a wonderful job. Personally, as far as the family is concerned, we really didn't know about this until after his death. It was in the back of our minds, but we didn't discuss it." Cathy Long accepted Rogers's flag at the major's funeral. "I really feel Alan was a lot more than that," said Cathy Long who called the Washington Blade story "self-serving whatever their cause is and that they're trying to use Alan to do that."
The Washington Post Ombudsman
Ombudsman
An ombudsman is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some internal or external constituency while representing not only but mostly the broad scope of constituent interests...
, Deborah Howell
Deborah Howell
Deborah Howell was a long-time newswoman and editor who served for three years as the ombudsman for The Washington Post.Howell is a Board Member In Memoriam at the IWMF ....
, stated that the editors of the Post deliberated the question of whether to disclose his sexual orientation and ultimately made a decision not to include such information.
The Army asked that Rogers's sexual orientation not be disclosed, and the Army presented it as a concern of the family.
The Washington Blade reported on the Post's decision to change the story and included more details about Rogers's activities and friends in the LGBT community. Subsequently, Howell of the Washington Post, citing Rogers's apparent feelings on DADT, wrote a column admitting that the Post's article "would have been richer" had it disclosed his sexual orientation and activities in the GLBT community.
On March 31, 2008, an anonymous
Anonymity
Anonymity is derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymity typically refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown.There are many reasons why a...
attempt was made to remove information relating to Rogers's sexual orientation from the present Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
article. The IP address
IP address
An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
associated with the attempt corresponds with the IP address for the office of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence (G-2) at the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
, currently headed by Lt. Gen. John Kimmons. Kimmons attended Rogers's funeral and presented the U.S. flag from Rogers’s coffin to a family member. The Army subsequently denied that the IP address associated with the changes "necessarily belongs to any one specific office."
The August 4, 2008, issue of The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
magazine published a lengthy profile of Rogers, and the larger issues surrounding the DADT debate spurred on by his death. The story quotes Colonel Mike Hardy, who worked with Major Rogers at the Pentagon, as saying, "He did not make any moves to be remembered as a gay soldier. Nowhere in those phone calls home did he say, 'let everyone know that I died a proud gay officer.'" Ben McGrath, the author of the article, then comments, "Of course, being a proud gay officer is tantamount, under the current military policy, to being a retired gay officer with no pension."
On December 18, 2010, the U.S. Senate passed a law ending the DADT policy, which is expected to be signed by President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
.
Awards
Bronze StarBronze Star MedalThe Bronze Star Medal is a United States Armed Forces individual military decoration that may be awarded for bravery, acts of merit, or meritorious service. As a medal it is awarded for merit, and with the "V" for valor device it is awarded for heroism. It is the fourth-highest combat award of the...
(2)
Purple Heart
External links
- A Soldier's Legacy An article from The New Yorker about Rogers and the debate over press coverage
- Alan Remembered (Personal dedication from a close friend)
- In his own words: Maj. Alan Rogers on the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy "Policy Management Project - Analysis of Department of Defense 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,'" Personnel Policy, Alan Rogers, Georgetown University, Master Policy Management (MPM) Capstone, PPOL 950-01, Dr. Mark Nadel, May 6, 2005.