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Pentagon's Repeal of Gay/Lesbian Discharges
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Frank Kameny Criticizes the Concept of 'Gay Cannon Fodder'

SLDN: Service Secretaries Decisions could take up to 4 Weeks

Compiled By GayToday

Washington, D.C.-Servicemember's Legal Defense Network (SLDN) announced yesterday that contrary to press reports, the Pentagon has not yet repealed or suspended 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'

C. Dixon Osburn, SLDN's Executive Director cautions that "service members should continue to operate with the understanding that 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' remains in effect."

According to SLDN's statement:

The father of gay activist militancy, Franklin E. Kameny, Ph.D.

"President Bush issued Executive Order 13223 on September 14, 2001 authorizing, but not ordering, the Secretary of Defense to consider issuing a stop-loss order in each Service. The Service Secretaries will make that decision in the next two to four weeks. A stop-loss order may or may not include suspension of gay discharges."

In remarks made to researchers at the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military (CSSMM), a research center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Charles Moskos, a military sociologist at Northwestern University, and a prime architect of the Pentagon's current regulations on gay soldiers, says the Pentagon suspends the discharge procedures during wartime to prevent straight soldiers from bolting.

Moskos explained the Pentagon's rationale while acknowledging its inconsistencies: "People say, 'I'm gay, let me out.' So they put this stop loss in effect, which is kind of hypocritical."

World War II combat veteran Franklin E. Kameny, Ph.D., the father of gay activist militancy, shared with GayToday how offended he feels because of such hypocrisy.

Kameny said:

"While versions of what, if anything, the Pentagon is actually proposing to do with respect to gay servicemembers in the course of the current-call-up are conflicting, the 'stop-loss' policy much publicized in the course of the past two days, if actually implemented in the form first presented and publicized, is obscenely offensive. It is objectionable on three grounds.

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" 1. It says that as long as we need cannon fodder, gays will be accepted, but once the need for cannon fodder has passed, gays will revert once again to being military pariahs.

" 2. It says that while heterosexual servicemembers, in age-old tradition, are free to engage, off-duty and off-base, in sexual activity with consenting adult civilians, because gays must "remain in compliance with the homosexual conduct policy" gay servicemembers must remain celibate. Whatever happened to equal protection?

"3. It says that while, under long standing practice, heterosexual servicemembers may engage in consensual sexual acts prohibited by UCMJ Article 125 (Sodomy), and engaged in by over 90% of all American adults (e.g. oral sodomy), gay servicemembers will be subjected to criminal prosecution for the same acts. Again: What happened to equal protection?

"If gay Americans are to serve in our military in this national emergency-- and we want to and we should -- then we must serve on precise parity with heterosexual Americans. That is what America is truly all about. Anything less or different is unacceptable and will not be accepted."