Army re-assigns recruiter for sending homophobic, racist emails

by: Pam Spaulding

Thu May 10, 2007 at 16:00:00 PM EDT

The Army has re-assigned a recruiter who sent racist and homophobic emails to a potential recruit who inquired about Army careers, Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) has learned.  Sergeant Marcia Ramode, who in March sent a series of offensive emails to Corey Andrew, an African American gay man contacted by Ramode through Monster.com,  has "been suspended from recruiting duties," and "has been reassigned from Army Recruiting Command to a duty position elsewhere in the Army," according to S. Douglas Smith, Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Army Recruiting Command.  "The investigation has been completed, and administrative action has been taken," Smith said in an email to SLDN.

Click to enlarge (and read and weep again).  Here's the PDF of the exchanges, sent out under a military domain as official business communication.

In her emails with Andrew, Ramode said, among other things, that Andrew should "go back to Africa and do your gay voodoo limbo tango and wango dance and jump around and prance and run all over the place half naked there and practice your gay morals over there..."  Ramode also said that "being gay is disgusting and immoral," and told Andrew to "migrate to another country."  SLDN assisted Andrew is bringing the emails to the attention of Ramode's command.

"The U.S. Army needs, and deserves, better ambassadors than Marcia Ramode," said Sharra E. Greer, director of law and policy for SLDN.  "Our armed forces are entrusted with defending `liberty and justice for all,' but Ramode's comments publicly undermined any commitment to those ideals.  Until military leaders demand, and enforce, a zero-tolerance policy for homophobic and racist rants like hers, harassment and intimidation will continue to occur.  Sergeant Ramode shouldn't just be re-assigned; she should be removed from duty altogether."