Republicans say gay rights activists do not have the votes in Congress to overturn the military’s ban on open homosexuality in the ranks, as a new debate swirled in Washington over the policy known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., a House Armed Services subcommittee chairman, kicked off the debate last month by introducing a bill, with 110 co-sponsors, to repeal the longtime prohibition, which was put into law in 1993.
The issue heated up this week when Gen. Peter Pace, joint chiefs chairman, told the Chicago Tribune that homosexuality was “immoral.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates later said defense officials should talk about the policy, not personal beliefs.
Republican defense staffers said Wednesday repeal advocates do not have the votes in either the House or Senate.
At least one repeal advocate agreed.
“If the vote were held today, probably not,” said Steve Ralls, spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which represents homosexuals targeted by the ban.
Meehan’s strategy is to hold a joint hearing of his oversight subcommittee and the personnel panel this spring. Activists hope the hearing will spur a reappraisal of the law and a vote to erase it next year or beyond.
A spokeswoman for Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said no hearings are planned “at this point.”
President Bill Clinton moved in his first weeks in office in 1993 to liftthe ban, which existed only in regulation. Congress balked and inserted the exclusion language into the defense authorization bill, which Clinton signed into law.
The Pentagon then wrote a new regulation known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It allows gay service members to serve as long as they keep their sexuality private.
Elaine Donnelly, who heads the Center for Military Readiness, said she cannot detect any serious movement on Capitol Hill to remove a law that, she said, promotes discipline and unit cohesion.
“If that principle were eliminated by legislation, and if professed homosexuals were allowed in the military and homosexual conduct was actually promoted in the military, which is what the activists want, that would be harmful to good order and discipline,” Donnelly said.
“The ban is counterproductive to the military’s best interest,” Ralls said. “It prevents recruiters from finding the best and brightest. It prevents the military from retaining skilled and quality gay and lesbian troops.”
A government study said the military, because of the gay ban, has expelled 9,500 service members of 2.37 million discharged, or 0.4 percent, from 1994 to 2003.
