APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS MILITARY'S GAY BAN

by Corrine Hicks

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (San Francisco) is upholding the military policy, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," by allowing the Navy's discharge of Petty Officer Mark Philips. For the majority of 2, Judge Pamela Rymer said she believed the military's policies were neither irrational nor based on mere prejudice. She accepts the Navy's arguments about maintaining morale and cohesion. Judge Rymer also clarified a traditional deference she mentioned, one shown by U.S. courts which bow regularly to military judgments.

The singular dissent on the appeals court, that by Judge Betty Fletcher, argued that the dismissal of such forthright persons as Officer Phillips, but not of heterosexuals for boasts of off-duty sex in private, is, in fact, pure discrimination.

The Navy argument states that the military won't be able to preserve common order and cohesion, that traditional Navy privacy would disappear and that sexual tensions would be inflamed if openly gay sailors discussed their feelings with others. Navy policy allows the discharge of persons who declare their same-sex orientations or who admit to engaging in same-sex relations, the policies used to silence Petty Officer Phillips.