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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 2004)
november S. 2004 » 13 kViiiiUk 1 v.\mne<ws S trength in N umbers New report estimates 65,000 gays and lesbians are serving in the military by B o b R o eh r “C a r vin g S a n t a ’’- AN ARTISTS DEMO D emo D ates and L ocations : Nov. 20: 2-5 pm W ash in g to n S quare Nov. 28: 1 0~3 pm P or h and A irport Gates adds, “To the extent that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ was a political compromise between a group that essentially didn’t want gay people to serve and a group that did, there is evidence to substantiate that both groups have had some suc cess with that policy.” There also is evidence that “the policy still filters gay men out, hut their service rates are starting to get more similar over time. It suggests that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ has made it a hit easier for gay men to serve. The problem with that analysis is that it doesn’t fit for women.” Gates acknowledges a possible alternative explanation for the shifts. “It could say something about stxriery changing and being more accepting and gay people feeling they can make these choices” to stay in the military, form coupled relationships or report them on a census fonn. H ie analysis drew upon self-report ing of same-sex couples in the census data, the same pxxtl of data that was culled for a recently released study on black same-sex couples. Most experts use this as the best census marker of gays and lesbians. “An interesting aspect of this is that we derive the estimates having never asked anybody in the censuses whether they are gay or lesbian,” Gates said. The question can he even more complicated with young people in their late teens and early 20s who may not yet have a clear sense of their sexual identity and are much less likely to he in a coupled relationship. That popula tion constitutes the greatest portion of those in uniform. Gates acknowledges “it is a difficult and challenging question” to try to fig A new national ad campaign highlights the large num ure out how representative same-sex ber of young men ages 18 to 25 who are fired from couples are of the gay and lesbian com military service because of their sexual orientation munity overall. “The short answer is, it lesbians— 2.5 percent of the total active duty depends on the characteristic you’re Icxiking at.” military— are serving in the armed forces. On the simple question of geography, they Including those serving in the National Guard appear to be similar. “Where you find a lot of gay and Reserve boosts that total to 65,000, or 2.8 couples, you’re likely to find a lot of gay people in percent of all military personnel. general,” Gates said. Gay men are underrepresented C. Dixon Osbum, among active duty personnel, at only Servicememhers Legal Defense N et 1.4 percent of the total, while lesbians work executive direc are greatly overrepresented at 9.3 per tor, called the report cent. Many surveys have found that an important one gays constitute roughly 5 percent of because it d(Kuments the population, with a ratio of about 2 that “the number of to 1 male to female. lesbians and gays in Other striking findings are that les service today is equal bians are on average four years older to half the total force than their gay male counterparts and strength currently are more likely to be white than serving in Iraq and is African American. This suggests to more than twice the Gates that many minorities are using 30,000 additional the military as a way out and to access troops the Army chief benefits such as education, while for white lesbians with greater economic — C Dixon Osburn of staff says he needs to fight the war on options, it is more of a career choice. “Especially given that it is the opposite for men,” terrorism.” He added, “There is no doubt that America needs her lesbian and gay patriots fight he said. ing on the front lines.. .they should be able to do “The important take away is that there is a so openly." nontrivial portion of women in the military that More than 10,000 members of the armed are lesbian. The other story is, given the kind of forces have been discharged under “don’t ask, invisibility o f ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ you can show don’t tell” since its passage in 1993. J H for the first time that gay and lesbian people have been serving in the military for as long as we B ob R oehr is a free-lance reporter based in have had a military. Up until this time we have Washington, D C . not had the data to prove that." "The number of lesbians and gays in service today is equal to half the total force strength currently serving in Iraq and is more than twice the 30,000 additional troops the Army chief of staff says he needs to fight the war on terrorism" D ec . 2: 4 -7 pm ( 1 st T hursday ) D owntown P ortland T W Mwrpi Fi ne A m e r i c a n Craft 9 0 Ì SW Yamhill * 5 0 3 .2 2 3 .9 5 1 0 » A M E R I C A N E X P R E S S F I NANC I AL A D V I S O R S Longtime relationship recognized. Long-term planning required. F o r a c o m p lim e n ta ry in itia l c o n s u lta tio n c a ll m e to d a y a t 5 0 3 .9 2 4 .1 9 9 0 . American Express Financial Advisors understands how one event can im pact your broader econom ic picture. 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Member NASD © 2003 American Express Financial Corporation A n analysis of data on same-sex couples from the 2000 census has produced the first-ever estimates of the number of gays and les bians who are serving or who have served in the military. Perhaps most surpris ing are the differences between men and women. Released Oct. 20, G ay Men and Lesbians in the U .S. Military: Estimates from the Census 2000, was written by Gary Gates, a researcher at the Urban Institute and author of The G ay and Les bian Atlas. H ie report says 36,000 gay men and
