Defense Secretary William Cohen, a former Republican senator serving a Democratic administration, said he is determined to make "don't ask, don't tell" work by adding a third requirement—"don't harass." Philpott details the situation surrounding the current legal ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military.
If elected President, Vice President Al Gore and former Senator Bill Bradley stand ready to abandon the Clinton administration's "don't ask, don't tell" policy and to press Congress to end the current legal ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military.
But Defense Secretary William Cohen, a former Republican senator serving a Democratic administration, said he is determined to make "don't ask, don't tell" work by adding a third requirement—"don't harass."
Gore, in a tough fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, vowed on 13 December 1999 to "eliminate this unacceptable form of discrimination." His statement came a day after the CBS program "60 Minutes" ran a segment that blamed a gay soldier's murder last July on intolerance for homosexuals, reinforced by the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Bradley later reiterated his own support for homosexuals serving openly.
Leading Republican presidential candidates Governor George W. Bush (TX) and Senator John McCain (AZ) support current policy, which states that service members are not to be asked about sexual orientation. But if they claim to be homosexual or engage in homosexual acts, they will be discharged from the service.
This was a hard-won compromise between the former ban on homosexuals in service and President Bill Clinton's campaign promise, in 1992, to allow gays to serve openly. The policy reflects the sense of Congress that emerged from congressional debates and hearings in the first year of the Clinton presidency. But Congress for the first time also spelled out in statute that homosexuality is grounds for dismissal.
Charles Moskos, a prominent sociologist, predicts Gore will regret the day he "walked back into that briar patch."
Moskos admits to having a stake in this fight. He first proposed "don't ask, don't tell, don't seek, don't flaunt" in a 1993 letter to Sam Nunn, then chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He conceded it is not easy to enforce. But it is better than a total ban, which can lead to greater restraints on individual rights, or to allowing homosexuals to serve openly, which would harm unit cohesion and morale.
"It's what Winston Churchill said about democracy: It's the worst system possible except for any other," Moskos said in a phone interview from Northwestern University in Illinois, where he is a professor of military sociology.
Gay advocates are using the brutal murder of Private First Class Barry Winchell by a "homophobe" soldier at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to try to overturn a policy that works, Moskos said. "I can't see the connection," he said. "One could draw another lesson from Fort Campbell, which is we should go back to the old system where you're asked about your sexual orientation and, if homosexual, you're not allowed to enter or you're immediately discharged."
Winchell reportedly was harassed about his sexual orientation before getting into a fight with a fellow soldier. Later, when Winchell was asleep in his barracks, the soldier he bested in the fight murdered him with a baseball bat, a jury found.
Defense Secretary Cohen suggested "don't ask, don't tell" will work if implemented properly, which means ending harassment of individuals suspected of being homosexuals, and commands being instructed not to allow it.
Another military sociologist, David Segal of the University of Maryland, disagrees with Moskos. Segal calls "don't ask, don't tell" neither "workable" nor "ethical."
"The policy sets off a portion of the population as different and basically deprives them of a citizenship right," said Segal. "Free speech is one of the things our military defends. It's ludicrous to contend that saying you're gay is not an issue of speech but an action that's intolerable, and at the same time, as a nation, to say if you bum the flag it's not an action but a matter of speech protected by the Constitution."
Segal joins other critics in contending "don't ask, don't tell" is being abused, and they cite as proof a rise in service discharges for homosexuality since the policy was adopted. But what is driving up the number, Moskos countered, is not more "asking" by commanders (a violation of the policy), but more "telling" by homosexuals to win early discharges. That point is supported by a Department of Defense study on "don't ask, don't tell" released in April 1998 that found 80% of discharges for homosexual conduct are "statement cases," where members themselves reveal their orientation. And 58% of members discharged for homosexuality serve less than a year. "This is the type of discharge that has been increasing," the report concluded.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff strongly opposed Clinton's early attempt to allow gays to serve openly and will do so again if Gore is elected, Moskos predicted. "To have straights and gays as roommates violates straights' privacy," Moskos said. "I'm not saying gays will misbehave. But just as it makes women uncomfortable to share intimate quarters with men, straight men should have the prerogative [to avoid the same] with homosexuals."
Even if homosexuals win the right to serve openly, Segal said, few actually would. He noted the experience of armed forces in Canada and the Netherlands, which have no restrictions on sexual orientation. "There's a gay servicemen's union in the Dutch military, and their biggest problem is figuring out who their constituency is," said Segal. "Because most gays don't come out."