Defends personal life

Bisexual fights Navy charge

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L.A. Times/Washington Post Service

LOS ANGELES A 44-year-old reserve naval commander who is an acknowledged bisexual said yesterday he will ask federal court to halt a Navy hearing today on his fitness to serve, saying, "What I do as a civilian is none of the Navy's business."

Gary Hess, the father of four and a twice-elected member of the Santa Barbara, Calif., County Board of Education, said he wants to stay in the Navy “because I like the Navy, it has been good to me.'

"You have to remember a reservist is a person who is a civilian 28 days every month and 2 days in the Navy." Hess told a news conference at the Greater Los Angeles Press Club.

Hess said he has a 23-year "perfect record" of Navy service and his private sex life has never interfered with the performance of his Navy duties.

According to Hess' attorney. John Vaisey, the Navy has accused Hess of homosexual acts.

He claimed the Navy charges are based solely on statements Hess made in public last fall at a political

debate at which he supported the then-pending California sexual freedom bill which since has been signed into law.

Hess' legal action contends the Navy action violates his First Amendment right to freedom of expression.

Hess said two unsuccessful candidates for the California Legislature reported his comments to the Navy and the Navy subsequently asked him to resign “under other than honorable conditions."

"I refused," he said yesterday. "My record is perfect and what I do as a civilian is really none of their business." Hess denied he is a homosexual but said, "I have engaged in activities with men on a discreet basis. I am not the kind of person who goes out cruising, that sort of thing."

Hess, assistant director of learning resources at the University of California at Santa Barbara and vice president of Santa Barbara Educational Television, said he and his wife were divorced in 1965.

She died and he has custody of their four children. His two-year period of active duty included service aboard the USS Princeton.