Reprinted from Family Research Council Washington Watch
March 1994 – Last year, millions of people called and wrote Congress to demand that the military’s ban on homosexuality be maintained. They were heard, and Congress enacted legislation that codified the ban. President Clinton signed the law on November 30.
Ban supporters betrayed
Now that effort has been betrayed. On December 22, departing Secretary of Defense Les Aspin released implementing rules that undermine the ban. The new “Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue” rules mirror the President’s proposal, not the legislation passed by Congress. Some key differences:
■ The law itself excludes anyone with even a “propensity” for homosexuality. Aspin’s new rules reinterpret “propensity” to mean the same thing as “likelihood to engage in acts.” This standard is narrower and will severely limit investigations and make it more difficult to discharge homosexuals.
■ The law allows the Pentagon to ask recruits about their sexual orientation. The administration chooses not to ask.
■ The law precludes service by homosexuals, even supposedly celibate ones. The rules, however, state that “homosexual orientation is not a bar to service entry or continued service unless manifested by homosexual conduct.”
■ The law relies on commanders to exercise discretion in investigations. But the rules prevent commanders from starting investigations without “credible evidence” of homosexual acts. Soldiers who frequent homosexual bars, march in homosexual parades, or have homosexual magazines in the barracks are no longer investigated without proof of physical homosexual contact.
■ The law permits security investigations to continue unabated. However, the rules bar security clearance investigators from asking about sexual preference. Even firsthand information about homosexual misconduct uncovered during a routine inquiry cannot be used in discharge proceedings without the Secretary’s permission.
Fiat accompli
These differences suggest the administration is trying to accomplish through bureaucratic fiat what it couldn’t win in Congress or the court of public opinion. In tandem with the more liberal Pentagon rules, the Justice Department is disregarding the intent of the old policy in the courts, ignoring key evidence and refusing to appeal decisions, casting shadows over the future of the new law.
Administration lawyer Mark Levy misstated the military’s long-standing policy in the recent appeal of the case of Navy Petty Officer Keith Meinhold. Levy argued that the policy does not bar all homosexuals from serving. Instead, he argued, the policy excludes only those who have engaged, or are likely to engage, in sexual behavior that disrupts the military mission.
The government’s attorney in the case of Joe Steffan, dismissed from the Naval Academy in 1987 after admitting his homosexuality, argued for a distinction between homosexual “attraction” and “desire.” The attorney said that a person might be attracted to a person of the same sex and thus have a “homosexual orientation,” yet that person might not “desire” to engage in homosexual conduct. He described this person as a “celibate homosexual,” ignoring Steffan’s own published admission of homosexual activity.
Shipping out tradition
Meanwhile, the Navy announced on December 1 that women will begin serving on combat ships this June. The announcement followed the repeal of the combat exclusion law (Section 6015, Title 10, U.S. Code), ignoring the recommendation of the 1992 presidential commission on women in combat.
Eight ships, including the aircraft carriers USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and USS Abraham Lincoln, are scheduled to begin assigning women this summer. Overall, the Navy plans to have 400 to 500 women aboard three carriers by the end of 1994.
The American people have made clear their objection to lifting the ban on homosexuality, and have not clamored to put women into combat. If these policies are not reversed, the military’s combat capacity will be damaged and the armed forces will become the vanguard of radical social engineering.
What you can do
Contact your Congressman and Senators and ask them to insist on enforcement of the law. Call or write: Hon. ________, Senate Office Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20510; and Hon. ________, House Office Bldg., Washington, D.C. 20515.
Tel. (202) 224-3121 (Senate), (202) 225-3121 (House). 
