Gays in the Military – Current Points of Interest

The issue of gays in the military is one that will not go away, as demonstrated by its resurgence in the current US presidential election campaign. Actually President and Mrs. Clinton helped revive the issue recently, with their responses to reports that the current military policy towards homosexuals, called "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell", is not working very well.

That conclusion, that the policy is not working well, is based on increased numbers of individuals discharged from military service on the grounds of homosexuality since the "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" policy began. Many former and current military commanders reject that conclusion. From their point of view, the increase in the number of individuals being discharged for homosexuality simply reflects an increase in the number of individuals who acknowledge they are homosexual and is not a result of increased attempts to track down and identify homosexuals in the ranks. The commanders want to bolster that position by citing the increase in the percentage of dismissals for homosexuality occurring in the first few months of military service, when soldiers are getting their initial training. We might surmise that some heterosexual new recruits use the declaration of homosexuality just to get out of military service when they find it not to their liking. However, given the strong antipathy of many military commanders to homosexuality, can we also assume there is not some unofficial attempts to weed out homosexuals, before they might establish long unblemished service records? It is not hard to see how galling it must be to active military commanders when the most notable homosexuals dismissed from military service have exemplary records. It would be only natural for military commanders who oppose gays in the military to wish they did not have to defend the policy in the face of well-noted homosexuals with exemplary military service – why not get them out early. In future pages we’ll identify many of those exemplary individuals for you.

A single report is insufficient to cover all the arguments, pro and con on this issue, and I would differ with some of the military commanders’ positions in support of the current "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" policy. The Republican presidential candidates seem uniformly opposed to gays serving openly in the military, with some opposed to gays in the military at all. Vice President Gore and former Senator Bill Bradley, the top Democrats running for President, have both expressed positions of allowing gays to serve openly. However, I would have to agree that Vice President Gore was out of line, morally and politically, when he suggested having a litmus test on this issue for appointees to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No matter what a military commander thinks of the political considerations for a policy, our system is designed for our commanders to follow their Commander-In-Chief’s orders, no matter what. I believe, with very few exceptions, that line of authority has been and will be honored by our military services. But, we want every commander to give his honest assessments and recommendations and not to parrot some party line just to get the next promotion.

After pro-choice politicians have decried the litmus-test-attitude about abortion from conservatives in the area of judicial appointments, what lame political advisor pulled this one out for Gore to stumble on? In politics there is nothing like success, and there is nothing worse than proceeding badly to try to do something good. By hurting himself with that off-the-cuff policy, Gore did not serve anyone, including his gay supporters very well. He cannot help them if he cannot get elected – the first law of politics. Gore has already proceeded with attempts at damage control on this subject, and we will all watch as the presidential campaign helps keep this issue alive.

Tom Painter

Editorial # 7

1/25/2000