A bill before the
San Francisco board of education would terminate the
Junior ROTC program in the city's high schools because it
discriminates against gay students. The measure was
introduced Tuesday by the board's only openly gay
member, who says the military's "don't ask, don't
tell" policy conflicts with school-district policy upholding
equal rights for gays, the Associated Press reports.
"If the military said, 'You can't be openly
Jewish, or you can't be openly Catholic,' I don't
think we would have stood for it," board member Mark
Sanchez told the AP. His bill calls "don't ask, don't
tell" a "state-sanctioned act of homophobia.
The bill proposes developing an alternative to
JROTC that maintains the program's physical fitness
aims but jettisons the ties to the military and its
discrimination against gays. Some 1,625 San Francisco public
school students currently participate in JROTC, according to
the AP.
If the bill passes upon a final vote next month,
it may be the first action of its kind.
A military spokesperson told the AP that no other
school district has banned JROTC to date. (The Advocate)
