A fraternization charge coming at Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois is raising questions about military policy impacting lesbian and gay service members.
Chief Petty Officer Sabrina Russell is facing a charge of fraternization for her relationship and subsequent civil union to a woman of a lower rank in her command.
Russell's lawyer insists that she is being unfairly targeted because she is a lesbian and because her partner reported a sexual harassment complaint.
Navy policy prohibits relationships between service members of differing ranks in the same command.
According to Russell's attorney Eric Montalvo, Russell began a relationship with Petty Officer 1st Class Jodi Geibel when the two were still the same rank. But Russell was later promoted to a rank above Geibel. They later entered into a civil union.
"They would have had to stop the relationship as soon as they found out that one of them was getting promoted," said Montalvo.
Montalvo said that Geibel did not fall under Russell's supervision. He said that such relationships are common in the military and that the charges against Russell were brought subjectively after Geibel reported sexual harassment against one of her peers.
"We have a situation where two people were engaging in lawful behavior, and now you're converting it to criminal behavior," said Montalvo.
He said that the relationship came to public light after someone in the command discovered a photo of their civil union ceremony on Russell's phone and began sharing it with others in the command.
"If this was a male and female couple, why would someone post a photo of them all over the base?" Montalvo said.
Lt. Matthew Comer, a spokesperson for Naval Services Training Command, said that neither Russell's sexual orientation nor the sexual harassment complaint had anything to do with charge.
"It's the fact that they're at the same command and that in itself is how fraternization works," said Comer. "It's a violation of Navy policy. We have to investigate all accusations of that violation."
Geibel is also facing disciplinary action but Russell has opted to fight the charge and will face a Navy court-marshal trial.
Rachel Natelson, legal director for Service Women's Action Network, said retaliation cases against women reporting sexual assault are not uncommon and that fraternization policies are often enforced at a commander's discretion.
"There doesn't really have to be consistency," Natelson said. "There's bound to be a lack of uniformity."
She said she sees retaliation charges for sexual harassment reports all the time.
Zeke Stokes, spokesperson for OutServe-SLDN, declined to comment on the specifics of Russell's case but said that what stands out about her charge most is that she feels has been targeted.
"It's not inconceivable that a situation like this could arise as a result of a service member being targeted for sexual orientation," said Stokes.
OutServe-SLDN has been pushing for a presidential executive order banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity for such circumstances.
That order would give LGBT service members an outlet to report discrimination outside their chain of command.