TIMES ONLINE: It takes two kinds of bravery to come out in the Armed Forces. Those who show courage deserve more than political cowardice
Among all the promises of change that swept Barack Obama to power, none seemed more simple, symbolic or easier to implement than his pledge to permit openly gay men and women to serve in America’s Armed Forces.
That promise has been repeated often over the nine months since his election — “don’t doubt the direction we are heading, or the destination we will reach”, he declared last weekend — yet America’s homosexual and lesbian soldiers remain firmly barricaded inside the closet.
The present policy, requiring gays to conceal their sexual orientation or face being discharged, could be overturned by executive order or legislation, yet Mr Obama apparently has little appetite for doing so. No timetable for a change in the 16-year-old policy has been set, and the White House is said to want to delay action into the distant future. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has become, under the Obama presidency, Don’t Rock the Boat, Don’t Act.
The law as it stands is a monument to hypocrisy, requiring homosexual soldiers to live a lie and allowing the military brass to ignore reality. With America fighting two wars and recruitment dwindling, it is also astonishingly short-sighted. More than 12,000 members of the US Armed Forces have been discharged since Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell came into force.
The law passed by Congress in 1993 states: “The presence in the Armed Forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.”
As Britain’s experience shows, this is demonstrably untrue. A decade ago, when Britain was forced to accept gay troops by the European Court of Human Rights, some predicted heterosexual mutiny. “If the doors were opened to homosexuals, there would be a polarisation, people would be ostracised,” Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Armitage (retired), the former head of military intelligence, insisted. “Men don’t like taking showers with men who like taking showers with men.”
As it turned out, the vast majority of serving soldiers accepted openly gay comrades without protest or, even more healthily, with benign lack of concern. At least two dozen armies across the world have admitted homosexuals and lesbians without any impact on operational effectiveness or recruitment levels. >>> Ben Macintyre | Thursday, October 15, 2009
