Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Clinton vows to allow gays in military Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 14:51:51 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD Clinton vows to allow gays in military \BY J. Jennings Moss \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT LITTLE ROCK, Ark. LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - President-elect Bill Clinton, keeping to an explosive campaign promise, vowed again yesterday to repeal the Pentagon's ban on homosexuals. "We've got a study that says a lot of gays perform with great distinction in the military," he told reporters. "I don't think status alone in the absence of some destructive behavior should disqualify people." Mr. Clinton reaffirmed his campaign promise at the end of a Veterans Day address at the state Capitol, in which he touched on his plans to reduce the military's size while improving its readiness. Reporters questioned Mr. Clinton on the subject of homosexuals because of the Navy's decision this week to heed, for now, a judge's order to reinstate a sailor discharged for homosexuality. Top military officers oppose allowing homosexuals to serve, on grounds of morale and readiness. Supporters of the ban include William Crowe, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who campaigned for Mr. Clinton. These officers say privately they are concerned about a wave of resignations - and even the possibility of violence among the troops - should the ban be lifted. "It would be a wrenching change," said one four-star general who heads a service branch, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "We're not ready for it. Good people will leave the military in droves over this." Two of the Pentagon's senior officers - Gen. Colin Powell, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Gordon Sullivan, the chief of staff of the Army - oppose allowing homosexuals into the services. Both four-star generals, who are expected to continue in service under Mr. Clinton, contend that the issue affects battle readiness, morale and the right to privacy. "It is difficult in a military setting, where there is no privacy, where you don't get choice of association, where you don't get choice of where you live, to introduce a group of individuals who are proud, brave, loyal, good Americans but who favor a homosexual lifestyle," Gen. Powell told Congress earlier this year. "I think it would be prejudicial to good order and discipline to try to integrate that in the current military structure." To ask homosexuals and heterosexuals to share latrines, barracks and showers would create "very difficult management problems," Gen. Sullivan said in an interview several months ago. The Defense Department said it would allow Keith Meinhold, the gay seaman, to return to active duty as a petty officer and sonar crew instructor at the Moffett Naval Air Station near San Francisco, but it will pursue a challenge to the lower court's decision. Mr. Meinhold is believed to be the first admitted homosexual allowed to remain in the military. Some government studies show about 1,000 people are discharged each year from the armed forces for being homosexual. Mr. Clinton yesterday said he would talk to top defense chiefs before repealing the exclusion. "How to do it, the mechanics of doing it, I want to consult with military leaders about that. There'll be time to do that. My position is we need everybody in America that's got a contribution to make." Mr. Clinton promised during the campaign to issue an executive order ending the homosexual ban, but Clinton spokesman George Stephanopoulos said yesterday that he did not know how soon after the inaugural that would be. "You make sure that people understand why you're making a decision. "We have to make sure that we do not have any discrimination of any kind in the federal government, and that'll be very clear when the decision's made." Homosexual-rights groups have praised Mr. Clinton's attitudes toward their military service as well as his pledge to work with Congress to enact a civil rights law to protect homosexuals and seek health care for AIDS patients. While Mr. Clinton rarely mentioned his support for homosexual rights on the stump, his comments yesterday indicate he will use the power of the presidency to make certain unpopular decisions. In the debate over the policy, Lawrence Korb, an assistant secretary of defense under President Reagan and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said, "I think if the president doesn't change [the ban], the courts will." He said his research shows that homosexual soldiers are compatible with an effective military. "They are already there," he said. "The challenge is how to deal with people who openly admit it." But Charles Moskos, a professor of military sociology at Northwestern University and a member of the President's Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Military, said the ban should remain in place because of the intimate nature of soldiers and sailors of the same sex living and working together. "It comes down to a matter of straights having rights to modesty and privacy, and I always think of the analogy between gays and straights as to men and women," he said, noting that the military also would have to deal with other issues, such as whether to have promotion quotas. Mr. Moskos also said that if Mr. Clinton wants to follow through on his promise, he should go through the Congress instead of using an executive order so that the public can have a voice in such a far-reaching decision. In Mr. Clinton's first public appearance since Election Day, he told veterans that he wanted to ease the transition in the post-Cold War shrinkage to a smaller military force. He would offer incentives to military personnel to leave voluntarily and would provide training for civilian jobs. As he reduces the size of the military, Mr. Clinton would improve airlift and sealift technologies. He also would improve the Department of Veterans Affairs health care network so all veterans would be eligible for care in VA hospitals. Mr. Clinton, whose campaign was plagued by discussions of his dodging the draft during the Vietnam War, pledged to resolve the national concern over POWs and MIAs by releasing those files that can be opened and by refusing to normalize nations with countries that withhold information. * This article is based in part on wire service reports. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. 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