McCain: Gay troops pose "intolerable risk"

Gay troops pose "an intolerable risk" to national security, U.S. senator and Republican presidential hopeful John McCain wrote last month to a gay rights group seeking to change his position on "don't ask, don't tell."

In an April 16 letter to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, McCain said, "I believe polarization of personnel and breakdown of unit effectiveness is too high a price to pay for well-intentioned but misguided efforts to elevate the interests of a minority of homosexual service members above those of their units.

"Most importantly, the national security of the United States, not to mention the lives of our men and women in uniform, are put at grave risk by policies detrimental to the good order and discipline which so distinguish America's armed services."

McCain, who voted in favor of "don't ask, don't tell" when it was enacted in 1993, concluded that "I remain opposed to the open expression of homosexuality in the U.S. military."

As the war in Iraq staggers through its fourth year, however, more and more Republicans and U.S. defense experts support repeal of the Pentagon's antigay policy.

In a March op-ed in The Washington Post, GOP former senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming wrote, "I believe it is critical that we review—and overturn—the ban on gay service members in the military. I voted for 'don't ask, don't tell.' But much has changed since 1993.... We need every able-bodied, smart patriot to help us win this war."

In the House of Representatives, 123 members from both parties have agreed to cosponsor a bill to repeal the law, which has led to the departure or discharge of more than 11,000 service members.

"Senator McCain's comments are out of step with the overwhelming majority of the American people, and out of touch with the best interests of our armed forces," said Sharra Greer, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network's director of law and policy, in a written statement Thursday.

"Senator McCain's defense of this counterproductive law is disrespectful to the more than 65,000 lesbian and gay service members on duty today."

The group's disclosure of the letter comes as McCain heads into the 2008 race's first GOP presidential debate, to be held Thursday at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif.

A complete copy of McCain's letter is available online at www.sldn.org. (Barbara Wilcox, The Advocate)