COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Service: Gays/Lesbians
'Don't ask, tell' proponent: Military now ready for gays
Associated Press
March 13, 2007
The Army general who was Joint Chiefs chairman whenthe Pentagon adopted its "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays says he
no longer opposes allowing them to serve openly.
John Shalikashvili, who retired in 1997 after four years as the
nation's
top military officer, had argued that allowing homosexuals to serve
openly would hurt troop morale and recruitment and undermine the
cohesion of combat units. He said he has changed his mind after meeting
with gay servicemen.
"These conversations showed me just how much the military has changed,
and that gays and lesbians can be accepted by their peers,"
Shalikashvili wrote in an opinion piece in Tuesday's New York Times.
His view could carry weight at a time when advocates of lifting the
restriction on gay service members argue that the military -- under the
strain of fighting two wars -- can ill-afford to exclude any qualified
volunteers. (Watch a former airman explain why he feels his dismissal
was wrongVideo)
It's not clear, however, how much enthusiasm Congress will have for
pressing the matter. While many Democrats have denounced the policy as
discriminatory, many Republicans have supported it, and members may be
reluctant to revisit such a divisive issue. Sen. John McCain,
R-Arizona,
a possible presidential contender in 2008, recently called the military
policy "very effective."
Rep. Marty Meehan on Tuesday hailed Shalikashvili's article and said he
would try this year to revive legislation forcing the military to
eliminate the policy. In 2005, Meehan, D-Massachusetts, introduced a
similar bill, which eventually attracted 122 co-sponsors, including
Republican Chris Shays of Connecticut and Independent Bernard Sanders
of
Vermont.
"There is no place in this country for discrimination, be it on the
basis of race, creed or sexual orientation, and there is certainly no
place for institutional discrimination codified in federal statute,"
Meehan said in a statement.
The current policy, based on legislation passed by Congress in 1993
after a firestorm of debate, states that gays and lesbians may serve in
the military only if they keep their sexual orientation private.
Commanders may not ask, and gay service members may not tell. Over the
years, thousands have been dismissed under this policy.
Shalikashvili is not the first former senior military officer to change
his mind about gays in the military, though he is perhaps the most
prominent. John Hutson, a retired two-star Navy admiral who was the
Navy's top lawyer, said Tuesday he thinks the nation has undergone so
much cultural change over the past decade that allowing gays to serve
openly in the military would enhance rather than weaken the cohesion of
fighting units.
"I think it will absolutely happen," Hutson said in a telephone
interview, but probably not during the Bush administration.
Shalikashvili said he expects fierce debate over gays in the military
this year as Congress considers President Bush's call for expanding the
size of the Army, which is stretched thin by wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Shalikashvili cautioned, however, against pushing for repeal of the ban
early in the new Congress, which he said should be focused on urgent
priorities like developing a better strategy in Iraq and healing
divisions over the war.
"Fighting early in this Congress to lift the ban on openly gay service
members is not likely to add to that healing and it risks alienating
people whose support is needed to get this country on the right track,"
he wrote in the Times article.
In explaining his shift on the issue, Shalikashvili also cited a new
Zogby poll, commissioned by the Michael D. Palm Center at the
University
of California at Santa Barbara, of 545 U.S. troops who served in Iraq
and Afghanistan. It reported that three quarters said they were
comfortable around gay men and lesbians.
The poll, published in December, also said 37 percent opposed allowing
gays to serve openly, while 26 percent said they should be allowed and
37 percent were unsure or neutral. Of those who said they were certain
that a member of their unit was gay or lesbian, two-thirds did not
believe it hurt morale.
C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense
Network, an advocate for gay rights, called Shalikashvili's article
"enormously significant." Osburn said it reflects a growing trend of
military leaders supporting repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell"
policy.
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