Contreras, Sonya, former Sergeant, U.S. Army (1998-2003)
Sonya Contreras, a former SLDN client served five years in the Army before being discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Born and raised in Southern California, Contreras enlisted in the Army in March of 1998. She completed Basic Training at Ft Jackson and moved onto AIT at Ft. Gordon.
Her first duty station was with the 121st Signal Battalion in Kitzingen, Germany. She served alongside her sister and completed back-to-back deployments to Kosovo in 1999. Her desire to share pride in serving her country led Contreras to volunteer for the Corporal Recruiting program, a program designed for E-4s to return to their hometown for one year to assist and generate interest in military service, in October of 2000. She was promoted to E-5 in May 2001 after completing PLDC at Ft. Lewis.
Contreras was able to reach out to schools and areas in the community which previously had not been receptive to the military. Outside of her recruiting duties, she volunteered and was requested to speak to troubled youths in schools as well as at the CYA (Civil Youth Authority). The Command Team of Oxnard Recruiting and the CSM of the LA Recruiting Battalion recognized her success in the Hispanic community. They began priming her to become a Station Commander in a Central California Recruiting Station which required Contreras to re-enlist with a one year stabilization option until the Command could work out the surrounding factors and have her relocated.
During the waiting game, Contreras welcomed a new Company Commander and a new Station Commander. The new Station Commander was aware of the plans for Contreras to assume a station of her own and complained to the First Sergeant and new Company Commander that she was a disruption to his station. Contreras was pulled aside by the Command and advised that she would serve as the Company’s Recruiter Trainer and would travel between the 7 stations and recruit for the Company. Contreras began this new role and assisted a station that had been missing numbers for months meet and exceed their goal in the last month of the quarter. This earned her the attention of the Brigade CSM, who, according to her First Sergeant, said to “speed up the process of relocating her.”
Unfortunately, Contreras’ peers did not respond well to being compared to the lowest ranking NCO in the station. Jealousy and accusations led to an unfounded investigation of Contreras’ recruiting tactics. When those attempts failed, her fellow NCOs began making accusations about her sexual orientation. Slanderous remarks were made at several functions that followed. The Company Commander was also a participant in the exchanges of antigay jokes during his first Equal Opportunity class with the Recruiting Company.
Contreras knew that she could not endure another four years of harassment or another investigation. Contreras contacted SLDN for assistance and received an honorable discharge from the Army in 2003 for her homosexual admission. She is currently a real estate appraiser in the East Bay of Northern California.
