Alan Greg Rogers

Alan Greg Rogers (September 21, 1967 – January 27, 2008) was an ordained Baptist 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.

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 York City 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."

Military career and adult life

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 thesis examined how the U.S. 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.

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."

Major Alan G. Rogers (top left) holding hands with his date during same-sex wedding ceremony on June 28, 2006 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. 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. Rogers's beneficiary from Florida later stated that he knew Rogers was gay, but felt it had "no more relevance than I'm straight." 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 media 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 cousin, Cathy Long of Ocala, Florida, 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." Kimmons attended Rogers's funeral and presented the U.S. flag from Rogers's coffin to a family member.

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."

In December 2010, the U.S. Congress passed a bill providing for the potential repeal of DADT pending certain conditions. Those were confirmed in July 2011 by President Barack Obama, the Secretary of Defense, and Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and repeal took effect on September 20, 2011.

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