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Researchers Locate Army Document Ordering Commanders Not to Fire Gays
Regulations Seem to Contradict Pentagon Denial That Military Retains Gays During War
Date: September 13, 2005
Press Contact: Geoffrey
Bateman, Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military
University of California, Santa Barbara 805-893-5664
SANTA BARBARA, CA, September 13, 2005 - Scholars studying military
personnel policy have found a controversial regulation halting the
discharge of gay soldiers in units that are about to be mobilized. The
document is significant because of longstanding Pentagon denials that
the military requires gays to serve during wartime, only to fire them
once peacetime returns. According to the "don't ask, don't tell"
policy, gays and lesbians must be discharged whether or not the country
is at war.
The regulation, contained in a 1999 "Reserve Component Unit Commander's Handbook"
and still in effect, states that if a discharge for homosexual conduct
is requested "prior to the unit's receipt of alert notification,
discharge isn't authorized. Member will enter AD [active duty] with the
unit." The 1999 document was obtained by researchers at the Center for
the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military (CSSMM), a think tank at
the University of California, Santa Barbara during research for an ABC
Nightline story.
Gay soldiers and legal groups have reported for years that known
gays are sent into combat, and then discharged when the conflicts end.
Discharge statistics corroborate a pattern of rising expulsions during
peacetime and plummeting rates during military conflicts, and Pentagon
statistics confirm that, as has been the case in every war since World
War II, gay discharges have declined during the current conflict in the
Middle East.
But the Pentagon has consistently denied that, when mobilization
requires bolstering troop strength, it sends gays to fight despite the
existence of a gay ban, and some observers have insisted there is no
evidence of such a practice. During the first Gulf War, Pentagon
spokesman, Bill Caldwell, said the military would "absolutely not" send
gays to war and discharge them when the conflict ends. "The policy on
gays continues that homosexuality is incompatible with military
service," he said. [Randy Shilts, "Army Discharges Lesbian Who
Challenged Ban," San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 19, 1991.]
Shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, a Pentagon spokesman
said that the military was not modifying its regulations on gay troops.
"There is no policy that would generate a change in the standards or in
the administrative due process for [Pentagon] programs," said James
Turner, "including the department's management of homosexual conduct
policies as prescribed in law." [Chris Bull, "'Don't Ask Don't Tell'"
Goes to War," The Advocate, December 04, 2001.]
And a May, 2005 study by the Congressional Research Service says
that although gay discharges do decline during wartime, the decrease is
the result of “random fluctuations in the data," not an intentional
Pentagon policy of retaining gays during wars ["Homosexuals and U.S.
Military Policy: Current Issues," p. 12]. The co-author of that recent
report, David Burrelli, testified before Congress in 1993 that the
Congressional Research Service "has been unable to confirm or deny"
that known gays were sent to the Persian Gulf, and that the military
has "taken the approach of excluding all admitted homosexuals." [David
Burrelli, Congressional testimony, page 9, 10]
But the newly discovered handbook regulations appear to contradict
all of these pronouncements. Bridget Wilson, an expert on military law,
said the handbook shows "how arbitrary and capricious the law is." The
policy says that if gay troops reveal their sexual orientation, they
must be fired. But these regulations say that if someone comes out as
gay, a commander "can discount that statement in one context and not in
another." He can "choose to ignore that statement as being said solely
to avoid duty and send that person on. But he wouldn't have to make a
finding that the statement was false, only that the person said it to
avoid duty." Thus it is fully possible that avowed gays would be sent
to active duty. "If you're knowingly sending gay people into a war
zone," said Wilson, "doesn't that vitiate your policy?"
The handbook is a revised edition of a similar document from 1990,
which contains identical language regulating the mobilization of gay
troops. That handbook was cited in a disputed Wall Street Journal
article reporting that the Pentagon was sending known gays to the first
Persian Gulf War only to discharge them upon their return. David
Burrelli questioned the Wall Street Journal's allegations that a
Commander's Handbook barred the discharge of gays during a
mobilization. "No such handbook has been found," he wrote, "nor has
their [sic] been any documentation that any such bars existed." [David
Burrelli, "An Overview of the Debate on Homosexuals in the U.S.
Military," in Wilbur Scott and Sandra Carson Stanley, eds., Gays and
Lesbians in the U.S. Military: Issues, Concerns, and Contrasts, FN# 21,
p. 30] The Commander's Handbook located by CSSMM scholars now provides
such documentation.
Prior to the first Gulf War, the government issued a "stop-loss"
order allowing the services to retain troops who were facing discharge
for a variety of reasons. Following the attacks of 9/11, a similar
stop-loss order was issued, but when the services implemented it, most
specified that discharges would continue for homosexual conduct. In
both cases, however, dozens of allegations surfaced that the military
was sending known gays to war. The two handbooks retrieved this week by
CSSMM researchers are among the first evidence of written regulations
clearing the way for known gays to mobilize.
Bridget Wilson said that the Reserve Commander's handbook may be
used as a way for commanders in the Reserve to "pass the buck" to other
officials. "It's the 'let's make it someone else's problem' mentality,"
she said, and it suggests that many commanders would rather not enforce
the gay ban. "I bet ninety percent of the time, they'll tell the guy to
shut up and get on the plane," Wilson said, "and I think that's the
purpose-they're trying to massage their way around the regulation."
According to Dr. Aaron Belkin, director of the CSSMM, "Scholars,
lawyers and, most importantly, gay service members themselves, have
long known of the military's practice of looking the other way when
it's time to fight a war. Now we have documentation showing this has
been a deliberate policy."
The Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military is an
official research unit of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The Center is governed by a distinguished board of advisors including
the Honorable Lawrence J. Korb of the Center for American Progress,
Honorable Coit Blacker of Stanford University and Professor Janet
Halley of Harvard Law School. Its mission is to promote the study of
gays, lesbians, and other sexual minorities in the armed forces.
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