Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, argue for repeal Tuesday
Its authors said that troops don’t necessarily have to like gays to serve alongside them, but — assuming the law changes — they simply will be treated like anyone else. The study group heard many concerns from service personnel expressing concern over “inappropriate conduct” in the ranks, but its leaders said such behavior is already banned regardless of sexual orientation. They urged that the notion of separate barracks and bathrooms for straight and gay troops — suggested by some commanders — “should be prohibited.” Troops who have been booted out for being gay could rejoin, if the law is changed.
“The findings suggest that for large segments of the military, repeal of `Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ though potentially disruptive in the short term, would not be the wrenching, traumatic change that many have feared and predicted,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday as he released the report. “The data also shows that within the combat arms specialties and units, there is a higher level of discontent, of discomfort and resistance to changing the current policy.
It’s that red flag — that nearly 60 percent of some of the front-line troops actually now waging two wars fear lifting the ban could hurt morale and combat readiness — that is going to generate the most heat as the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” showdown happens this week and next in the Senate. Gates said he takes such concerns seriously, and that careful preparation is required to ensure a smooth transition if Congress, or the courts, for that matter, changes the policy. He added that he doesn’t know how long that process might take, although some Pentagon officials have estimated it could take about a year. (“Not fast, but not drawn out, either,” General Carter Ham, chief of Army forces in Europe and one of the key authors of the report, said helpfully.) Far better to let gays serve under a congressionally-approved, methodical Pentagon plan, Gates said, than having it be ordered abruptly by a judge.
Reaction to the Pentagon’s findings was predictable. Gay advocates hailed its conclusions. “This exhaustive report is overwhelmingly positive and constructive,” said Aubrey Sarvis, an Army veteran and executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. “The Pentagon validated what repeal advocates and social scientists have been saying about open service for over a decade.” But those opposed to change criticized the report for merely asking how troops would comply with an end to the ban, not whether it should be lifted. “No level of risk should be acceptable merely to advance a radical social agenda,” said Marine veteran Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council. The study “failed to address the central question — whether overturning the current law would enhance our nation’s ability to fight and win wars.” He’s echoing the line advanced by Sen. John McCain and others who want to keep the ban in place.
President Obama lauded the report. “Our troops and their families deserve the certainty that can only come when an act of Congress ends this discriminatory policy once and for all,” he said after the Pentagon report’s release. “Today I call on the Senate to act as soon as possible so I can sign this repeal into law this year and ensure that Americans who are willing to risk their lives for their country are treated fairly and equally.” The House voted in May to lift the ban; if the Senate fails to act during its current lame-duck session, chance of repeal will dim when lawmakers have to start over next year and the GOP will control the House.
The survey of 115,000 troops — the largest ever undertaken on the topic — found that 70 percent felt letting openly gay people serve would have little or no effect on military readiness; 69 percent they had already served with someone they believed to be gay, and that 92 percent of those who served alongside gays said their unit’s performance was “very good, good, or neither good nor poor” — in other words, not poor. Three out of four spouses surveyed said lifting the ban wouldn’t change their attitude about their husband or wife staying in uniform.
Responses to the anonymous survey administered by the Pentagon reflected all three sides of the issue. “People view the military as the last bastion of morals and what is good. If we break that down here, what does it boil down to? What’s left?” said a supporter of the ban. Others said lifting it would mean little. “In the unit that I am in now there are individuals that are homosexual,” a service member who favors lifting the ban said. “We haven’t had any issues thus far and these soldiers have been deployed numerous times with the same people.” Even gay troops were offered a secure way to comment without betraying their identity. “I doubt I would run down the street yelling ‘I’m out’; but it would take a knife out of my back I have had for a long time,” one said. “You have no idea what it is like to have to serve in silence.”
So much for the empirical, quantifiable evidence. Now the battle shifts to the political arena, where Senate hearings on Thursday will feature the Pentagon’s top civilian leaders pushing to lift the ban, followed on Friday by the heads of the military services known to have concerns about such a change. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has called for lifting the ban. He noted Tuesday that the study group “found strong leadership to be the single most important factor in implementing any repeal.” Unfortunately, the final battle of this campaign will be fought on Capitol Hill. Opponents of the change there, bolstered by conservative gains in last month’s elections, will roll out the heavy artillery in an effort to keep “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on the books for the foreseeable future.