[Vision2020] Military Recruiting Woes, Efforts Intensify to End Ban on Openly Gay Soldiers

[Garrett Clevenger]

It's too bad nationalized bigotry is more important than national security.

Contact your representatives in Congress to support the Military Readiness 
Enhancement Act (MREA) 
(http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109:1:./temp/~c109OOAh3J::)  which 
will lift the ban of gays and lesbians in the military.


Larry Craig:  craig.senate.gov/email/

Mike Crapo: crapo.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm#form_anchor

Butch Otter: www.house.gov/otter/email.htm


Thanks!

Garrett


"Despite our government's claim of liberty for all, we leave homosexuals 
out.  If the American military sees and is allowed to see itself as the 
protector of some but not all Americans, democracy fails."

Lt. Col. Allen Bishop
U.S. Military Academy professor


Amid Military's Recruiting Woes, Efforts Intensify to End Ban on Openly Gay 
Soldiers

by David Crary
Published on Tuesday, June 14, 2005 by the Associated Press

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0614-08.htm


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."

The Pentagon, asked for comment on the SLDN report and Osburn's remarks, had 
no immediate response.

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."

Bishop said he was heartened by the positive reaction to his article. But he 
predicted that military commanders would not lead the way in seeking an end 
to the ban and instead would defer to Congress.

On the Net:
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network: http://www.sldn.org/

© Copyright 2005 Associated Press


Garrett Clevenger

http://www.icehouse.net/garrett

"What are we doing to our Homosexuals?!:("