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'Don't Ask, Don' t Tell' Policy a Failure
September8, 1999

The Servicemen's Legal Defense Network has released its fifth annual report and concluded that the Pentagon's implementation of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue," is a total fiasco and terrible failure. I concur completely.

Anti-gay harassment in the military has surged to record levels since Congress enacted this ill-sighted legislation five years ago. Reports of asking and pursuits increased 42%. Reports of harassment doubled. Demands for Pentagon guidance under these vague and misguided policies go unanswered. Military leaders have held no one accountable for asking, pursuits, or harassment. The policy is a disaster. Bill Clinton is directly responsible and accountable. He is the guy in charge; the guy who issued the 1993 Executive Order allowing gays into the military, and he's the one who crumbled, backed down, and caved in when he was faced with opposition to it.

Thanks to Bill, discharges because of homosexuality in the military have increased 86% over the past five years. The Pentagon discharged 1,149 service members in the calendar year 1998 alone. Women comprised 27% of the gay discharges, even though women only represent only 14% of the active duty force.

Because the military has determined sexual harassment is inappropriate, more service personnel have reported that they are forced to come out of the closet, often against their will, not because they want to violate the 'don't tell' policy, but rather because it is the only way they can check anti-gay harassment. But then they subject themselves to military discharge. Welcome to the world of Catch-22.

I will always treasure Leonard Matlovich for his tombstone. The discharged gay veteran's permanent epitaph reads: "When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one..." Things have not changed, and the Servicemen's Network now reports that more and more soldiers are reporting increased incidents of heavy-handed military tactics to prosecute gay men and women. These include threats of criminal confinement, family "outing", and a host of threats to extract confessions. Welcome to the nation's finest boys club.

To its credit, the report does say that physical abuse has declined, that mass investigations have waned, and that criminal prosecutions have diminished, but only because administrative discharges have increased. In other words, the military leaders are saying: "Quit today and we will not throw your gay ass in jail tomorrow.." Not exactly something I would applaud.

Under the misguided Clinton policy, which parallels the Reagan camp from 1981, lesbian, gay, and bisexual members are fired from the military for stating their secual orientation or being in a committed adult relationshhip with someone of the same gender. Heterosexual service members are not subject to the same restrictions. Ironically, in the past few years Congress and military leaders have acknowledged that sexual orientation should not be a bar to military service. Supposedly, they have agreed to stop intrusive and invasive investigations into one's sexual orientation. But I guess they can't get enough of it. That's the way it is in life. You can't get enough of what you can't get. And most of those leaders in uniform really want it. They are just afraid to ask. Maybe that's why it is called 'don't ask'.

Last year I represented a Coast Guardsmen who had nineteen and one half years in the service and was about to be honorarily discharged on his twentieth anniversary, when his homosexuality was revealed. The government sought to administratively discharge him and revoke pension privileges. After nearly two decades of distinguished service, what could be more asinine than that ? Now a conservative Republican Congressman from Arizona, the openly gay Steve May is about to be thrown out of the Armed Forces, where he serves as a reservist. From its inception, the don't ask policy has been assinine, insulting, demeaning, and humiliating. Do I make myself clear ?

In place of enlightened privacy, military leaders have imposed an absurd rule of total secrecy on lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members. The military has used personal diaries, best friends, parents, and even psychologists to discharge service members. There is no confidentiality privilege for psychotherapists and their patients in the military. But what could be more vile than using mental health care providers and family members to enforce this policy ? That they could even call it 'don't pursue' is a fraud, unconscionable, and totally unacceptable.

We are living in an era when major corporations and many municipalities are enforcing domestic partnerships and providing safe havens for same sex couples. In civilian life, if someone has a problem with your homosexuality, it is their problem. It was not always that way, but we are moving from the dark ages of repression to a new millenium of decency. In the military, however, your sexuality can be used to blackmail and terrorize you. Ironically, a 1998 Gallup poll showed 77% public support for gays in the military. Of course, that makes so much sense the military cannot be expected to follow it. These are the people who buy dime screwdrivers for eighteen thousand dollars.

Whenever I debate the issue of gays in the military , I turn to common sense reasoning. If I am looking for my fellow soldier in a foxhole to cover me, am I going to be more interested in whether his partner in bed is straight or whether the aim in his rifle is ? Typically, we have been all exposed to the wonderful line from heterosexuals that they 'do not care what you do in private as long as you act straight in public.' Can you imagine what it would be like if we turned that line around and used that logic on them: " Hello, I don't care what straight people do in private as long as they act gay in public. " Life is a circle. When someone points a finger at you, it usually means they are pointing at least three back at themselves.

In the face of all this news, it is at least mildly encouraging that Defense Secretary William Cohen last month belatedly published revised guidelines requiring mandatory anti-harassment training for all troops. But revising the guidelines on a misguided policy reminds me of a closing argument I often tell a jury when I am convinced a witness is lying and I want all of his testimony discarded.

Suppose you enthusiastically unwrap a chocolate bar, given to you for your birthday, begin eating it, and frighteningly discover after the first bite that there are maggots in it. You spit it out. In disgust, you fling it across the room. Do you think you or anyone else is going to retrieve it and break it apart, looking for a safe piece to eat ? You are going to throw that whole sucker out, aren't you? That's what we need to do with 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue.' Throw that whole sucker out. You see, the policy on faggots has maggots....

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