Essay in journal urges end to policy on gays

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the position of Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, who supports the current law banning gays from military service. She is not an advocate of the current military policy, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," which regulates gay service.

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It's not an official Pentagon endorsement, and Joint Forces Quarterly isn't exactly Time or Newsweek. But a military journal article written by an Air Force colonel advocating the repeal of the so-called " Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law is notable nonetheless.

Col. Om Prakash, now on the staff of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, won honors for the essay, which he wrote early this year while he was a student at the National War College. It won the 2009 Secretary of Defense National Security Essay competition and is published in the October issue of Joint Force Quarterly.

Titled "The Efficacy of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' " the seven-page piece noted that both U.S. society and the military have changed since the law prohibiting gay service in the military was passed by Congress in 1993. The law mandates discharging any military personnel who declare themselves to be gay or when there is credible evidence they have participated in a homosexual act.

A Pentagon policy developed with input from President Bill Clinton softened the law's application, allowing gays to serve as long as they don't acknowledge their sexual orientation.

Since 1993, more than 12,000 personnel have been discharged for being gay.

Prakash wrote that the military has paid dearly for losing those members, as well as thousands more who have probably not re-enlisted, "because of the intense personal betrayal they felt continuing to serve under the auspices" of the law.

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell " is a costly failure when measured in manpower and expenses, Prakash wrote. But he said there's a bigger reason to repeal it, It erodes the bonds of trust that Congress itself noted were paramount for military units when it enacted the ban.

The text of the law says that banning homosexual service is necessary to uphold "high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability."

Prakash wrote that forcing members of a tight-knit unit to lie about a basic part of themselves is more harmful to unit cohesion than allowing gays to serve openly.

The article also touches on the experiences of Australia, Canada, Israel and the United Kingdom, which have lifted bans on gay military service since 1993.

Nathaniel Frank, author of a book on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and a research fellow at the Palm Center at the University of California at Santa Barbara, called the essay "a watershed in the debate over military service by open gays and lesbians."

The c enter, which advocates repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," studies gender, sexuality and the military.

Frank sai d the article's publication in a top military journal "reflects a seismic shift in military opinion on the gay-troops issue."

National Defense University Press publishes Joint Force Quarterly "in support of the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," according to its Web site.

Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness and a supporter of the current law banning gays from military service, said the article's publication shouldn't be misinterpreted. The essay appeared automatically after the magazine's own editors chose it for the award, she said. 

She said the essay is "almost completely one-sided" and full of references to "the gay-activist Michael D. Palm Center." Prakash failed to mention any studies that refute the center's conclusions, she said.

The article "trails off into diversionary tangents that fail to recognize reasons why some patriotic people are eligible to serve in the military and some are not," Donnelly said.

Kate Wiltrout, (757) 446-2629, kate.wiltrout@pilotonline.com