Slain soldier Alan Rogers' sexuality continues to stir scandal.

An unidentified internet troll inside the Pentagon reportedly deleted all gay details from Rogers' Wikipedia entry:

The user on Monday redacted details about Rogers that appeared on the online encyclopedia site. Information that was deleted included Rogers’ sexual orientation; the soldier’s participation in American Veterans for Equal Rights, a group that works to change military policy toward gays; and the fact that Rogers’ death helped bring the U.S. military’s casualty toll in Iraq to 4,000.
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The IP address attached to the deletion of the details and the posted comments is 141.116.168.135. The address belongs to a computer from the office of the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence (G-2) at the Pentagon. The office is headed by Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, who was present at Rogers’ funeral and presented the flag from Rogers’ coffin to his cousin, Cathy Long.

Those army girl are cold bitches.

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The Pentagon's gay bomb plot made the world laugh out loud. And they've been honored for bringing so many smiles:

Pioneering research into a "gay bomb" that makes enemy troops "sexually irresistible" to each other has scooped one of this year's Ig Nobel Prizes.

Other winners included work on treating hamster jetlag with impotency drugs, extracting vanilla from cow dung, and the side-effects of sword swallowing.

The awards, founded in 1991, mark achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think".

The prize ceremony took place at Harvard University…

The Pentagon and their gay-baiting scientists won the "peace" category.

No doubt SLDN leader Steve Ralls celebrated when he heard the Pentagon will dismantle its dissident monitoring TALON program, a program that included gay rights groups on its hit list.

The move does, however, have a downside, as Ralls explains:

This is, yes, a certain victory for civil liberties, and we should all celebrate this small step toward individual rights and sexual privacy. The exhibitionist in us, though, might feel a bit left out in the cold. After all, what's more exciting than the thought of all those military intelligence boys at DoD getting a kick out of your kisses?

We're missing the government's prying eyes already…

(Image courtesy Robert Richards.)

The Pentagon may be changing their tune on Don't Ask, Don't Tell. The Defense Department's Cynthia O. Smith released a statement saying that though they've been booted from the service, gay patriots can still help defend the nation.

[Gays and lesbians] have the opportunity to continue to serve their nation and national security by putting their abilities to use by way of civilian employment with other Federal agencies, the Department of Defense, or in the private sector, such as with a government contractor.

Gay defender defenders Servicemembers Legal Defense Network points out that this statement's the first time The Department of Defense has invited queers to help fight America's so-called good fight.

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The Pentagon's anti-gay politics came into clear view this weekend after officials finally admitted the government once commissioned a so-called gay bomb. Once detonated, the bomb would release a powerful aphrodisiac officials hoped would transform once mighty soldiers into sissies (pictured).

Berkeley's Sunshine Project employed the Freedom of Information Act to obtain records of the queer weaponry, which the Pentagon played down as an "idea". The records prove, however, that the government actively pursued the project. Berkeley's Edward Hammond explains:

The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistibly attractive to one another.
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It would have never come to my attention if it was dismissed at the time it was proposed. In fact, the Pentagon has used it repeatedly and subsequently in an effort to promote non-lethal weapons, and in fact they submitted it to the highest scientific review body in the country for them to consider.

The Pentagon papers also indicate the Air Force requested $7.5 million to fund the bomb, which officials describes as "distasteful but completely non-lethal". Warmongers initiated the project in 1994, the same year 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' went into effect.

Approximately forty House Representatives are urging the Pentagon to reconsider its ban on gay Arabic linguists. Spearheaded by Representative Marty Meehan - the Massachusetts politico who regularly fights "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" - the collective asks the Pentagon to justify booting 58 gay Arabic linguists.

Speaking on his own behalf, Meehan pondered:

At a time when our military is stretched to the limit and our cultural knowledge of the Middle East is dangerously deficient, I just can't believe that kicking out able, competent Arabic linguists is making our country any safer.

The outcry comes after government officials fired three more gay linguists, including Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Stephen Benjamin…

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After last week's scandal over a Pentagon 1996 document classifying homosexuality as a mental disorder, the Department of Defense has reassessed its position — and is updating its paperwork. Lt. Colonel Jeremy Mertan from the Office of the Secretary of Defense's public affairs office told PageOneQ:

The directive has been reviewed, homosexuality should not have been characterized as a mental disorder in an appendix of a procedural instruction. A clarification will be issued over the next few days. Notwithstanding its inclusion, we find no practical impact since that appendix simply listed factors that do NOT constitute a physical disability, and homosexuality of course does not.

None of this, of course, changes the way gays in the military are treated when it comes to being public with their sexuality. So, as long as you kept your orientation a secret anyway, it'd be hard to discharge you for a mental disorder. Such progress!

Pentagon reverses on listing of homosexuality as mental illness [PageOneQ]
Earlier: Pentagon Calls Homosexuality A 'Mental Disorder'

• It the scandal over the heavily contested Pentagon document overblown? [Law Dork]

• Tonight at the WYSIWYG Talent Show (which two of your editors have performed at) in New York: Way Gay: Even Gayer Gayness, featuring some of our favorite gay bloggers including Manhattan Offender and Joe. My. God. [WYSIWYG]

• There's more to YouTube than wrestlers in singlets and Kylie Minogue videos. The GLBT Historical Society is launching its own YouTube channel stuffed with archival footage of queer video. [Advocate]

• When not in Hawaii shooting Lost, Matthew Fox enjoys skinny dipping at night. With friends. [Out via Queer Beacon]

In the U.S. Armed Forces, the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy is just the beginning. A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a "mental disorder" alongside mental retardation and personality disorders in one section and goes so far as to list reitrement procedures for gay men and women serving. (Unfortunately, no published report we could find explains what the document is, when it was drafted, or how it was released. The document is a Department of Defense Instruction and was signed by the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness in 1996 and re-certified as "current" in 2003, says CSSMM.)

Pentagon officials have quickly jumped on the defense, claiming the document is now "under review." Some lawmakers, meanwhile, have already sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asking "for a full review of all documents and policies to ensure they reflect that same standard."

Back in 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. (For such a progressive organization, keep it mind the APA was run by mostly straight white men.) Perhaps one day, the U.S. government will do the same. Officially.

Update: View the documents here.

Pentagon Lists Homosexuality As Disorder [AP]