"Don't ask" on hold for soldiers in Iraq

Secretly and without consultation with the U.S. Congress, the U.S. military has suspended, in part, its ban on openly gay soldiers, an official military spokesperson has said. But after these soldiers have risked life and limb for their country, the military retains the right to kick them out when they get home.

"The bottom line is, some people are using sexual orientation to avoid deployment. So in this case, with the Reserve and Guard forces, if a soldier 'tells,' they still have to go to war, and the homosexual issue is postponed until they return to the U.S. and the unit is demobilized," said Kim Waldron of the U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort McPherson, as quoted in a <i>Washington Blade</i> story published Friday.

Congress passed a ban on openly gay and lesbian service members in 1993. The law, signed by President Clinton, created the policy known as "don't ask, don't tell," allowing only closeted soldiers to remain in any military service. Any solider who admits being gay or lesbian must be discharged under the policy. No exception in that law was carved out for combat duty.

Nevertheless, in a 1999 Army manual called the "Reserve Component Unit Commander's Handbook," uncovered this month by the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military in Santa Barbara, Calif., Army officers are instructed to retain openly gay soldiers during wartime. In the case of any possible discharge for homosexual conduct or admission requested "prior to the unit's receipt of alert notification," the handbook states, "discharge isn't authorized. Member will enter AD [active duty] with the unit."

That policy appears to be in clear violation of the law.

According to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, statistics confirm that during the Iraq war discharges for homosexual conduct or acknowledgement, both outlawed in the military, have fallen. The military has long denied that any official policy existed that would ignore the legal obligations of "don't ask." Waldon's acknowledgement is the first such admission.

"The military has claimed for years that allowing openly gay and lesbian service members to serve in uniform would undermine unit cohesion," said Aaron Belkin, director of the California think tank. "During wartime, however, when cohesion is most important, the Pentagon retains gays and lesbians."