by Lou Chibbaro Jr.

C. Dixon Osburn said an attorney representing Servicemembers Legal Defense Network visited Fort Campbell last weekend and talked to about 50 soldiers and civilians. He added that the group also distributed fliers to base personnel and Gay bar patrons in the surrounding areas, seeking more information about the murder. (by Clint Steib)

A soldier who was murdered in a July 5 altercation in his barracks at the U.S. Army base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, may have been the victim of an anti-Gay hate crime, according to Gay activists who have spoken to soldiers stationed at the base.

A spokesperson at the base said Private First Class Barry L. Winchell, 21, died in a hospital on July 6, six hours after he received injuries in a 3 a.m. "physical altercation" inside his barracks. On July 9, Fort Campbell officials charged Private Calvin N. Glover, 18, with premeditated murder in connection with Winchell’s death.

Military officials have declined to release any details of the incident and said they would not disclose the motive of the murder until after they complete an investigation headed by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. Fort Campbell is home to the military’s highly acclaimed 101^st Airborne Division and is one of the nation’s largest military bases.

An official with the Nashville, Tenn., based Lesbian and Gay Coalition for Justice said Winchell had been a regular patron of a Nashville Gay bar and that he identified himself as being Gay to a small circle of civilian and military friends.

"He was very good at what he did," said Coalition co-chair Rhonda White. "Many straights on the base knew he was Gay and did not care."

Fort Campbell is located on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. Military personnel stationed at the base frequently drive to Nashville during their off-duty hours, activists familiar with the base said.

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a Washington, D.C., group which assists Gays in the military, released a statement on July 9 saying it received "numerous phone calls" saying Winchell may have been targeted by a bat-wielding assailant who believed Winchell was Gay.

C. Dixon Osburn, SLDN’s co-executive director, said one of the group’s attorneys visited Fort Campbell last weekend and talked to about 50 soldiers and civilians. Osburn said the group also distributed 3,000 fliers to personnel at the base and to patrons of Gay bars in surrounding areas in Kentucky and Tennessee, seeking information about the murder.

Osburn and White said soldiers who have contacted their groups believe Glover did not act alone in the attack on Winchell and that some soldiers believe a group of soldiers participated in beating Winchell.

White said that, although she did not know Winchell, she has spoken to several patrons of The Connection, a Nashville Gay bar, who knew Winchell as a regular customer there. White said it was well known among the bar’s employees and regular customers that Winchell had been dating a male employee at the bar who performed there as a female impersonator.

The Nashville Tennessean reported this week that rumors of Winchell’s relationship with a man had circulated on the base prior to his death and that military investigators were scheduled to interview sometime this week a Connection employee who Winchell was dating. The Tennessean also reported that the employee Winchell was dating "was a pre-operative transsexual, living and dressing as a woman while planning on a sex change operation."

Base officials say they will neither confirm nor deny reports from the Gay community that Winchell was Gay and was the victim of a Gay-bashing.

"We are looking into all rumors and reports," said Maj. Pamela L. Hart, a spokesperson for the base. "Investigators are pursuing all possible leads. They are not ruling anything out."

A statement released by the Fort Campbell public affairs office says Winchell was a native of Kansas City, Mo., and entered the Army in October 1997. The statement says he arrived for duty at Fort Campbell in May 1998 and served as an anti-armor weapon operator. According to the statement, Winchell had been assigned to the Delta Company in the 2^nd Battalion of the 502^nd Infantry Regiment.

Base spokesperson Hart said Glover, the soldier charged with Winchell’s murder, was assigned to the same unit as Winchell. Hart declined to disclose where Glover is from but said Glover entered the Army in October 1998 and arrived for duty at Fort Campbell in May 1999.

Osburn said SLDN sent a letter this week to Maj. General Robert Clark, commander of Fort Campbell, urging him to order his investigators not to question witnesses about their own sexual orientation during the probe into Winchell’s murder. Osburn notes that SLDN has recorded numerous instances where military investigators have violated the military’s "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy on Gays in the military by improperly seeking information about the sexual orientation of servicemembers.

Meanwhile, the Army on Tuesday, July 13, announced it has sent 225 of the soldiers assigned to the brigade where Winchell had been stationed to Saudi Arabia for six-month tour of duty. White said she and other Gay activists are concerned that some of the soldiers sent to Saudi Arabia may have information that could be relevant to the investigation into Winchell’s murder. Officials at Fort Campbell could not be reached for comment by Blade deadline to determine if any of the soldiers sent to Saudi Arabia are believed to have information pertaining to the murder.