 "Photo: Stephen Durda")
A small group of gay rights activists protested outside the Army recruitment center at Dobie Mall Tuesday, resulting in the arrest of two local residents.
After entering the recruitment center and refusing requests to leave, Rebecca Solomon, 18, and Jesus Sanchez, 24, were arrested and charged with criminal trespass, according to the Travis County Jail. Gay rights group Soulforce staged the sit-in to protest discrimination against gays in the military, Solomon said.
"We want to make sure that those serving in silence have a voice," Sanchez said.
Solomon and Sanchez have attempted to enlist in the Army but were turned down after they disclosed their sexual orientation, despite previously receiving positive feedback from recruiters regarding their eligibility.
"It's the best place to serve my country, and there are also many opportunities in health care professions," said Solomon, who has wanted to be a nurse since she was in middle school.
At a 10 a.m. press conference outside the 21st Street entrance to Dobie Mall, Solomon and Sanchez said the event was part of the larger Soulforce Right to Serve campaign, which aims to call attention to the discriminatory and costly results of the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, which prohibits openly gay citizens form serving in the military.
Another goal of the sit-in was to encourage congressional support of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, Solomon said. The act, introduced in March 2005, advocates everyone be allowed to serve regardless of sexual orientation.
Soulforce is a "national organization dedicated to ending political and religious oppression of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons," according to the organization's Web site.
Before Solomon, Sanchez and their three supporters arrived outside the center, recruitment officers locked the office doors to prevent them from entering and "interrupting the business of the recruitment officers," said Sgt. Jeremy Cousineau, the office supervisor.
"We've already seen them, we have no reason to see them, we can't help them, all they can do is write their congressmen," said Sgt. Richard Connor, an Army recruiter, in a phone interview.
Connor said if a candidate wanted to talk to an officer about enlisting, they would absolutely open the doors.
Cousineau said locking the door is a typical precaution during protest situations.
"It's a judgement call," he said.
Cousineau said after one of the recruitment officers left the office, leaving the door unlocked, Solomon and Sanchez entered the recruitment center and sat on the floor outside of his office. Cousineau said he and mall security asked them to leave, but they refused.
Responding to a call from mall management, approximately five Austin Police Department officers arrived and asked Solomon and Sanchez to leave. Cousineau said APD arrested the two young adults when they resisted and escorted them to Travis County Booking.
Solomon and Sanchez were booked at the county jail Tuesday afternoon on a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass, according to the county jail's booking records.
After her first unsuccessful attempt to enlist Aug. 22, Solomon said she wrote a letter to Texas' U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett, Michael McCaul and Lamar Smith, requesting they discuss abolishing the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. Solomon said she gave a deadline of Sept. 6 to arrange a meeting on behalf of Soulforce. Only Smith has responded, she said.
"Based on the deadline they gave us, there wasn't enough time to accommodate them," said Beth Frigola, press secretary for Smith. She said Smith's office has not been ruled out for a meeting.
Doggett's office did not return calls Tuesday.
Solomon and Sanchez, along with any other willing supporters, will continue to have sit-ins everyday until a representative agrees to meet with them, according to a Soulforce press release. Soulforce coordinator Jessie Sullivan said after Tuesday's arrests they planned to pursue avenues of advocacy other than sit-ins at the mall.
Sanchez said he would like to enlist to serve his country and for financial reasons. He said after attending a culinary institute in Chicago for a year and a half, he could no longer afford the tuition, and enlisting in the Army was the only way he could continue pay for his education.
Since the "Don't ask, don't tell" legislation was enacted under the Clinton administration, about 11,000 individuals have been discharged on the grounds of their sexuality, according to the Department of Defense Web site.
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