Roll out the welcome wagon. We’ve got a new neighbor. A U.S. Army recruiting station opened quietly in the heart of Hillcrest at the corner of University and Tenth avenues last month.

The irony isn’t lost on Hillcrest’s residents, who, well, in large numbers, aren’t permitted to serve in the armed forces, not openly anyway.

Yes, in a predominantly gay neighborhood, an Army recruitment center is a questionable venture.

So how’d the Army land here?

According to a public affairs officer for the U.S. Army, the Army uses census data and market research, and measures population growth to determine whether a recruitment center would leverage recruiting efforts in a particular zip code.

It also uses historical data (i.e. the number of past enlistees from a particular zip code) to determine whether the site would be successful.

The military’s presence in a gay neighborhood would be worth a chuckle if not for the fact the military’s failed policy, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” forces its gay and lesbian service members to serve in silence; and if not for the fact the U.S. military continues to discharge gay and lesbian service members, while allowing more convicted felons to enlist.

Yes, an Army recruiting station in Hillcrest would be a worthy punch line, if not for those two reasons.

After the death of gay soldier, Maj. Alan Rogers, who died in combat in the Iraq War on Jan. 27, The Palm Center released a report in April saying predicting 64 gay and lesbian service members have been killed in the Iraq War since 2003.

The center, formerly the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, based its study on the pentagon’s report that more than 4,000 men and at least 98 women have died in Iraq.

According to Gary Gates, senior research fellow at the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, approximately 1.4 percent of active duty men and 9.3 percent of active duty women are gay.

If the deaths among gays and lesbians are proportional to the deaths from the Iraq War of the rest of the military population, it would mean that 55 men and nine women who died in uniform were gay.

Adding insult to injury, since 1993, more than 12,000 men and women have been dismissed under DADT, including, as was noted in a story written by associate editor Randy Hope last week, 800 service members with skills deemed critical to the U.S. military.

To combat low enlistment and the number of quality service men and women discharged under DADT, new reports show the Army and Marine Corps have recruited more convicted felons. The House Oversight Committee and Government Reform Committee reported last week the number of soldiers admitted to the Army with felony records jumped from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007. The number of Marines with felonies jumped from 208 to 350. The crimes run the gamut from burglary, theft and drug offenses, to sex crimes, manslaughter and vehicular homicide.

And the U.S. military continues to discharge two gay or lesbian service members under DADT every day.

We support all the dedicated service men and women in the armed forces, but the U.S. Army recruitment station in Hillcrest is going to have to excuse our poor hospitality.

We can be good neighbors, but we certainly aren’t extending the olive branch to anyone who deems us less worthy than convicted burglars, rapists and murderers – particularly when gay and lesbian service members continue to sacrifice their lives for a country that recognizes them as second-class citizens.