House panel reopens debate over 'don't ask, don't tell'

WASHINGTON

Hours after a Capitol rotunda ceremony marked the 60th anniversary of racial integration in the armed forces, a House subcommittee reopened a long-smoldering debate about whether gay and lesbian Americans also should be welcomed fully into military service.

In an often-contentious hearing on the nation's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on service by gay individuals, lawmakers heard assertions that the military is losing thousands of talented and patriotic people because - as one witness put it - "of who they happen to love."

They also weighed claims that repealing the law would drive thousands of other Americans out of the military as refugees from "forced cohabitation" with gay troops that would violate their morals.

At issue is a 15-year-old policy, adopted in the early months of the Clinton administration, that permits service by gay people so long as they keep their orientation private. More than 12,000 people have been discharged from the armed forces under the policy because they declared their sexuality or the military found they had engaged in homosexual acts.

"I am horrified that Don't Ask, Don't Tell forces trained and ready troops to choose between serving their country and living openly," said former Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, a gay man who in 2003 became the first American wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Alva comes from such a dedicated Marine family that his middle name is Fidelis, as in "Semper Fidelis," the Corps' motto. He lost a leg when he stepped on a land mine three hours into the invasion. Many of the other Marines who saved his life that day knew his sexuality, he said.

"The typical reaction from my fellow service members: 'So what?' I was the same person. I did my job well. And that's all they cared about. Today, I am godfather to three of those men's children," Alva said.

Another critic of the policy, retired Navy Capt. Joan Darrah, said she left the military after a narrow escape from the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon brought home the emotional toll her longtime "double life" in uniform had taken.

"If I had been killed, my partner then of 11 years would have been the last to know, as I had not dared to list her name in any of my paperwork or on any of my emergency contact information," Darrah said.

But Elaine Donnelly, a conservative activist who has attacked the policy as too permissive of service by gay people, argued that legal sanction for that service would be a victory for "the San Francisco left, who want to impose their agenda on the military."

Donnelly also asserted that service by openly gay troops could foster the spread of AIDS in the military and that heterosexuals harassed by gay comrades would fear being branded as "intolerant" if they reported sexual advances.

Her comment about AIDS drew an acid rebuttal from Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark. By Donnelly's logic, he said, it would be best to invite lesbians into the military and exclude everyone else because lesbians have the lowest incidence of AIDS of any group.

Wednesday's hearing was the first to focus exclusively on the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy since 1993. It comes amid signs that public support for the ban on service by openly gay troops has weakened.

A CNN poll released in June 2007 found that 18 percent of Americans think gay people should not be allowed to serve openly. A Zogby International survey of U.S. troops in 2007 found that 73 percent say they're comfortable working with gays.

The same Zogby poll, Donnelly noted, found that 26 percent of service members agreed that gay people should be allowed to serve openly.

Critics of the policy said Wednesday's hearing is a first step in what will be a long struggle to get it repealed.

"The idea is to give people a chance to be educated and understand exactly what's going on," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., who is leading the repeal effort.

She has not even polled Armed Services Committee Democrats on the bill. "This is something the president won't sign and we need a new president in order to get this passed," she said.

Dale Eisman, (703) 913-9872, dale.eisman@pilotonline.com