Cracks in "don't ask": some military officials are dragging their feet when it comes to discharging openly gay service members. (Military).

When Army Reserves sergeant Scott A. Osborn, a native of Herndon, Va., came out of the closet in a letter to his military superiors in December, it looked like he might end up an exception to the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. "The commander looked at me and said, 'Are you sure you want to do this? You have three more years before you can retire,'" says Osborn, who has served more than 16 years total--in the Army on active duty, the National Guard, and the Army Reserves. "I said, for my own emotional well-being, I had to get it out there."

The commander later pulled him aside, Osborn says, and told him that "he thought the whole 'don't ask, don't tell' policy was a violation of people's civil rights." On March 9, Osborn was deployed to Fort Bragg, N.C., along with the rest of the Army Reserves 354th Civil Affairs Brigade to prepare for deployment to the Middle East.

So the 35-year-old wasn't too surprised that his superiors seemed to be doing what they could to slow down his discharge. Nearly a month after coming out, he learned that the investigating officer assigned to his case had called only two of the six contacts Osborn had given to check out his story.

"The command followed everything they were supposed to; they just didn't do it very quickly," he says. "It appeared as though they weren't going to do anything until we got back from Kuwait or Iraq or wherever we ended up in the long run."

But all that changed within three days of arriving at Fort Bragg, when the base's public affairs office was contacted about Osborn's case by gay newspapers in Washington, D.C., and New York City. By March 20, Osborn was processed out of active duty and the reserves. "I found myself standing outside Fort Bragg, going, 'I have no place to live.' I had given up my apartment and I had given up my pet, all because it was my understanding I was going to Kuwait," he says.

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which provides legal assistance to service members hurt by "don't ask, don't tell," says there is a silver lining in Osborn's case. "It's a very good example that commanders recognize gay and lesbian service members can do their job," says Steve Ralls, director of communications for SLDN. "I think there is a very noticeable but quiet shift where commanders are becoming more and more willing to challenge the policy."

Now Osborn, who received an honorable discharge, is temporarily living with his ex-boyfriend in Reston, Va., and has returned to his job as a field operations supervisor in the parking enforcement division for the city of College Park, Md.

"I'm getting the cold shoulder from people at work," he says, explaining that because of the media surrounding his discharge, some of his coworkers think he used his sexual orientation to get out of deploying overseas--something he strongly denies.

"The one consistent mainstay in my life has been the Army," he adds. "It's unusual not to be--it sounds corny, I guess--not to be a part of the family that I felt I was a part of."

Lisotta also writes for L.A. Weekly.