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íebruary 5. 1999 » J
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The military's thinly veiled war on lesbians and gay men continues,
and the Air Force leads the pack with 4 14 discharges by Bob Roehr
j^e
Gf lesbians and gay men
kicked out o f the U.S. military in
1998 climbed to 1,145—even as
the overall size of the military con­
tinued to shrink. It is the largest
number of discharges in more than a decade.
The “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue” pol­
icy was adopted in 1994. President Clinton
pitched it as a compromise that would allow gay
men and lesbians to serve in the military. How­
ever, the number of discharges has grown each
year since the policy was put in place.
The policy is supposed to allow lesbians and
gay men to serve if they keep their sexual orien­
tation private. It punishes those who engage in
homosexual acts or are open about their sexual
land Air Force Base,” says Benecke, SLDN’s
other co-executive director.
Her group is calling for “an impartial investi­
gation. . .something the Pentagon itself admitted
that it has no mechanism to do.”
SLDN is also requesting a meeting with
Lackland military officials.
“Our concern is to get to the bottom of this
as quickly as possible,” says Osbum, “but also
(to] make sure that we are being thorough and
accurate about it.”
Osbum is hesitant to define exactly what an
impartial investigation might look like, but
agrees that either an individual or a group could
conduct the investigation.
Among those who might be considered is
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Dixon Osbum (left)
of the Servicemem-
bers Legal Defense
Network and
Timothy McVeigh
(center) at a Janu­
ary 1998 press con­
ference regarding
McVeigh’s case
against the Navy
orientation. If a service member voluntarily
states his or her homosexuality, discharge is
automatic. In the case of a recruit still in basic
training, a voluntary declaration of homosexual­
ity means an administrative discharge that does
not carry a bad-conduct stigma.
In the Air Force, discharges soared from 309
in 1997 to 414 in 1998—an Air Force record,
according to the San Antonio Express-News; in
the Army, discharges jumped from 197 to 310
during the same period. The Navy, meanwhile,
showed a decrease from 413 in 1997 to 345 in
1998, while the Marines dipped from 78 to 76.
The Pentagon made the figures public Jan.
22, three days after Reps. Marty Meehan, D-
Mass., and Connie Morelia, R-Md.—as well as
22 other House members—sent a missive to
Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen. Continued
increases in discharges “should set off alarm bells
as to whether ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is working
properly,’’ the group said.
“These numbers are shameful,” blasts Dixon
Osbum, co-executive director of the Service-
members Legal Defense Network. “Military
leaders have turned a blind eye to the continued
asking, pursuit, and harassment of gays, lesbians
and bisexuals serving our country.’’
Lackland Air Force Base, a training facility
near San Antonio, accounted for 65 percent, or
271, of the Air Force’s 414 discharges in 1998.
An Air Force review concluded that most of
the discharges were “unsolicited and voluntary.”
It suggested that young service members were
using the policy to get out without blemishing
their record.
But Michelle Benecke isn’t buying it.
“There is something terribly wrong at Lack-
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East-West College of the Healing Arts
Northwestern University professor Charles
Moskos. He has conducted extensive surveys of
attitudes within the military and is known as
“the father of don’t ask, don’t tell” for his work
in drafting that legislation. Former Democratic
Rep. Patricia Schroeder of Colorado, who
served on the House Armed Services Commit­
tee for many years, is another possibility.
Meanwhile, some observers believe the
decline in Navy discharges is, at least in part,
due to the bad press the Navy took last year over
its bungled attempt to discharge petty officer
Timothy McVeigh.
A federal court found that Navy investiga­
tors illegally obtained McVeigh’s online account
information and violated “don’t ask” proce­
dures. It ordered him retained by the service.
Some feel the official discharge figures are
only the tip of the iceberg of the policy’s impact
in driving gay men and lesbians from the mili­
tary. There are, for example, anecdotal accounts
of Navy personnel being allowed to resign under
different provisions rather than be prosecuted
under the policy.
SLDN officials say it will cost $34 million to
replace those drummed out of the service in
1998. They base the calculations on estimates
made by the federal government’s General
Accounting Office in the early 1990s.
“The military is wasting a lot of money and
resources declaring war on gay men and lesbians
who have served their country honorably,” adds
Winnie Stachelberg, political director of the
Human Rights Campaign.
Says Stachelberg: “The increase in dis­
charges shows how this dismal policy continues
to ruin lives.”
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