Police took three
people into custody after they refused to leave a
U.S. Marine Corps recruiting office in Shreveport, La., on
Tuesday during a protest of the military's ban on
openly gay recruits. The Virginia-based gay rights
organization Soulforce said it was staging such
protests in 30 cities around the nation in the coming weeks
and months. Organizers have dubbed the campaign Right
to Serve.
The three taken
into custody were among nine who tried to enlist at the
Marine recruiting station on Mansfield Road. Soulforce
condemns the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy
as blatantly discriminatory and says it hurts
recruiting at a time when recruits are needed.
Charles Moskos, a
military sociologist at Northwestern University who
helped craft the policy, defended it in a recent interview
with the Associated Press. Moskos said allowing openly
gay service members would hurt the morale of the
military rank-and-file and make many recruits
uncomfortable. "The gay advocates say it will cause
enlistment to go up, but I think you'd find it
dropping rather than rising," Moskos argued. (AP)