Gays in military subject to contradiction

NORFOLK

Debates over allowing gay men and women to serve in the military quickly get complicated.

That's because there are two seemingly contradictory regulations governing gay military service: the policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and the federal law declaring homosexuality incompatible with military service.

Both date to 1993, when President Bill Clinton attempted to end a longtime ban on openly gay members serving in the military.

Clinton's policy prohibits individuals from talking about, and commanders from asking about, sexual orientation. One concrete result: That eliminated a standard question on enlistment forms about a recruit's sexual orientation.

The presidential action galvanized opponents of the change. In late 1993, Congress passed a law requiring the military to discharge any personnel who identify themselves as gay or have engaged in "homosexual acts."

The bill - now Title 10, Section 654 of the U.S. Code - stated that military service is "unique" in its circumstances. It is characterized by its own laws, customs and "restrictions on personal behavior that would not be accepted in civilian society." As such, it must exclude people whose presence threatens morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion.

Making the long standing ban into law raised the stakes. President Barack Obama no longer has Clinton's option of trying to craft a new policy. It will take an act of Congress to overturn the law.

Obama has said he would gladly sign a bill giving gays the right to serve - but it's up to legislators to get it to his desk.

There's movement to do that in the House. U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a California Democrat, has introduced a bill to repeal the current statute and require the military not to discriminate against homosexuals. Now in subcommittee, the bill has 175 co-sponsors, including U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, the only legislator from Hampton Roads who lent a name to the effort.

The Senate will likely be a much harder battle. No bills comparable to Tauscher's have been introduced.

Both supporters and opponents of repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" are trying to get their message out.

Last summer, Sgt. Maj. Brian Jones, a retired Army Ranger, testified against the change at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. Jones told legislators that having gay members on a special operations team wouldn't work. Tight-knit, all-male units, which typically work in severe conditions, can't tolerate gay soldiers, he said, recalling times in his own career when he trained in extreme conditions.

"The only way to keep from freezing at night was to get as close as possible for body heat, which means skin to skin. On several occasions, in the close quarters that a team lives, any attraction to same-sex teammates, real or perceived, would be known and would be a problem," Jones told lawmakers. "The presence of openly gay men in these situations would elevate tensions and disrupt unit cohesion and morale."

The 1993 law notes the potential for combat, forcing troops to live and work in primitive conditions, with forced intimacy and little or no privacy - a circumstance that has certainly been borne out during seven years of sustained combat in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Some of the thousands of service members injured in combat are gay, including Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, the first U.S. service member wounded in the invasion of Iraq.

Three years after losing his leg to a land mine - and having President George W. Bush present him with the Purple Heart - Alva publicly acknowledged being gay. He testified at the same hearing Jones did, in support of Tauscher's bill.

Alva's case leads some to say that fears about gay members destroying unit cohesion are overblown.

Others argue that until the law is repealed, the military can't truly crack down on those who abuse colleagues perceived as being gay - and they say that kind of harassment can also threaten a unit's cohesion and morale.

A case in point is the unfolding story about abuse of sailors in a Navy dog-handling unit in Bahrain in 2005 and 2006. The chief of naval operations, Adm. Gary Roughead, has asked for a review of the investigation into an abusive chief petty officer who allegedly terrorized junior sailors assigned to the kennel.

One of the targets of the abuse, Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Rocha, said the abuse started when he refused to have sex with a prostitute, spurring some sailors to question his sexuality. Later, after battling post-traumatic stress disorder, Rocha told a superior that he was gay, a statement he knew would cost him his Navy career and appointment to the Naval Academy.

Aaron Belkin, director of The Palm Center, a University of California at Santa Barbara think tank, and a supporter of lifting the ban, said the Bahrain case shows that telling sailors not to harass people they think might be gay or lesbian isn't enough.

"Our research shows you can't get rid of anti-gay abuse as long as the military's official policy is discrimination," Belkin said Friday, shortly after finishing a lecture about gays in the military at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pa.

Some legal experts insist that changing the policy doesn't need congressional action.

A policy paper the Palm Center published in July, by University of Florida law Professor Diane H. Mazur, contends that the secretary of defense could cite national security interests to keep on duty gay service members facing discharge.

He could also raise the bar on what it takes to investigate a soldier's or sailor's sexuality. Currently, regulations prohibit looking into the matter unless "credible information from reliable sources" exists.

The defense secretary could also require that no investigations of potentially gay service members occur without his specific approval.

That move would address one of the biggest criticisms of the law - that it is applied arbitrarily and sometimes vindictively, endangering some gays and lesbians while allowing others to serve.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates may be thinking along the same lines. He has said he is disturbed by the prospect of gay service members being blackmailed or outed as revenge.

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