november S. 2004 »
13
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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
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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"
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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