Posted on 06/16/2005 5:55:11 AM PDT by GulliverSwift
AP) - NEW YORK-Critics of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy are gaining new allies, including a few conservative congressmen and a West Point professor, as they press on multiple fronts to overturn the ban on out-of-the-closet gays and lesbians in the armed forces.
As part of their strategy, opponents of the policy are now highlighting the ongoing struggles of Army and Marine recruiters. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network say in a new report that many highly trained specialists - including combat engineers and linguists - are being discharged involuntarily while the Pentagon "is facing extreme challenges in recruiting and retaining troops."
On other fronts:
-A federal court hearing is scheduled in Boston next month on a lawsuit by 12 former service members challenging the 12-year-old policy.
-In Congress, four Republicans - including stalwart conservatives Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida - have joined 81 Democrats co-sponsoring a bill to repeal the policy. Gilchrest, a former supporter of the ban, said he changed his view partly out of respect for gay Marines he served with in Vietnam and for his brother, who is gay.
-A U.S. Military Academy professor, Lt. Col. Allen Bishop, wrote a column this spring in Army Times urging Congress to repeal the ban. "I thought I'd get lots of hate mail, and my colleagues would walk on the other side of the hall - but there's been none of that," he said Tuesday.
Still, neither the White House nor the Pentagon has given any signal that they would drop their long-standing support for the policy, implemented in 1993 under the Clinton administration. It prohibits the military from inquiring about the sex lives of service members but requires discharge of those who acknowledge being gay.
On July 6, the Bush administration plans to ask a federal court in Boston to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the policy. The suit cites a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that state laws criminalizing homosexual sex were unconstitutional; the government says that landmark decision has no bearing on "don't ask, don't tell."
More than 9,400 troops have been discharged since the policy was implemented. Discharges peaked at 1,227 in 2001, and declined to 653 last year, a drop which critics attribute to reluctance by war-zone commanders to deprive their units of experienced gay and lesbian personnel during difficult missions.
"The services are far less likely to discharge gays and lesbians serving on the front lines," Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said in its report, released Monday. It said those discharged last year included 41 health care professionals, 30 sonar and radar specialists, 20 combat engineers, 17 law enforcement agents, nine language specialists and seven biological/chemical warfare specialists.
"The military continues to sacrifice national security and military readiness in favor of simple prejudice," said SLDN Executive Director C. Dixon Osburn. "Americans do not care if the helicopter pilot rescuing a wounded soldier or the medic treating that soldier is gay."
A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, noted that dismissals under the policy are only a small fraction of overall military discharges. She also noted that the Defense Department could only change the policy if Congress acted first.
Among the recently discharged soldiers is Robert Stout of Utica, Ohio, who was wounded while serving in Iraq and wanted to remain in the Army as an openly gay soldier. He is scheduled to visit Washington this week to lobby for repeal of the ban.
Gilchrest, the Maryland congressman, said he was unsure how many of his fellow majority Republicans were ready to join in seeking repeal, but suggested the momentum was shifting in that direction.
"When this issue comes up, members who believe that gays shouldn't be in the military are now more hesitant to voice their opinion," Gilchrest said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "Many of us who feel the other way have come out of the closet, so to speak. A year ago, I would have been uncomfortable expressing my feelings."
Bishop, who teaches philosophy at West Point, said he had been troubled for years by "don't ask, don't tell" before deciding to write about it.
"They can be gay, but they can't practice being gay. They can be here, but they can't tell you who they are - it seemed pretty confusing to me," he told The Associated Press.
In his Army Times article, Bishop assailed the policy as contradictory to fundamental American principles.
"Despite our government's claim of liberty for all, we leave homosexuals out," he wrote. "If the American military sees and is allowed to see itself as the protector of some but not all American, democracy fails."
They think this will help the recruiting: "Join the Army now and you get to spend the night in a fox hole with a fag."
Why control of the courts is so important to liberals...
Lowering the standards again?
Actually, I think that Bush will start easing up. He needs the troops after four months of recruting shortfalls. I suspect that this one reason he isn't cracking down on the border. He needs more folks to sign up......including non-citizens. There are at least 37,000 in the military now.
um... it is one thing to battle against the 'gay agenda', but another to prevent a group of citizens from serving their country. It hurts the country and it IS discriminatory.
I'm totally supportive of allowing gays to serve in the military openly.
Now, should we take this further and push for 'quotas', 'affirmitive action' and all of that rot? Of course not.
Radical homosexual activists should not join the armed forces because it is not a place to be with a leftist agenda.
As long as men and woman keep their hands to themselves and do not break any laws re:sexual contact- what the heck difference does it make what kind of adult they sleep with when they are at home?
I support a don't touch rule. I would assume most service people adhere to that rule, since I am pretty sure that aggressive,unwanted sexual contact upon another service person in a foxhole is already against military law.
No, that is a distraction. There have to be standards. The military must not let up on this, it would be the sign of one PC victory after another.
Let's get the facts out on this.
Prior to 1993 there was a Pentagon POLICY not permitting the service of gays. With a phone call Presidnet Clinton could have ordered the Secretary of Defense to rescind that policy, and gays would then have been able to serve. But Clinton, the Draft Dodger, had no credibility with the military, so he retreated in the face of criticism from the generals.
The Democrat Congress then passed the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law, and Clinton signed it.
So, the ban on gays in the military IS NOT a Pentagon or Military POLICY it is the LAW OF THE LAND, passed by a Democrat Congress and signed by a Democrat President.
People who attribute any of this to the Secretary of Defense or the Military leaadership need to be educated.
If they think they are having trouble recruiting now, watch what will happen if they change this policy.
I say sign them up, put them on the front line or the first ones in. There's no need for straight guys and gals to get killed and leave nothing back in the states but homosexuals.
I hear the Iraqi military is having problems getting recruits. Why don't they allow homosexuals!!! < /sarcasm>
No, I'm flaming you for being a stubborn liberal.
I looked up your profile to see if you were a liberal lurker for banning.
I suppose the enemy artillery needs to shoot at something.
"I say sign them up, put them on the front line or the first ones in. There's no need for straight guys and gals to get killed and leave nothing back in the states but homosexuals."
And "leave nothing back" in America but leftist effete anti-American proMarxist "liberals".
I find that comment so repulsive.
Agreed
Out of all the veterans and soldiers who I know, I can not think of one of them who is so concerned about a person's sexual preferences that they would prefer the tick on the butt to remain- to asking a guy or gal, who has shown they have the stuff that makes an American soldier, remove it.
I understand why the military is opposed to radical homosexual activists....but I don't think many of those pansies would make it thru bootcamp.
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