Ban On Gays

COLUMBUS, GA. -- The joke at the Chester S. Harrison American Legion Post 35 yesterday went like this:"Do you know what the President did this morning?""No, what?""Enlisted men don't have to salute officers anymore -- they just have to blow them kisses."Retired World War II veteran William "Teal" Allen delivers the punch line in a slow Southern drawl to the hoots of his fellow Legionnaires at the bar. And Mr. Allen voted for Bill Clinton.But in this southwest Georgia community, home to more than 47,000 active, reserve and retired military, the buckle of the Bible Belt, the president's proposal to lift the ban on gays in the military amounts to fighting words.

Pardon me if I'm encouraged -- but not enthused -- by the decision of the Boy Scouts of America to lift its century-old ban on gay scouts. I just can't get that excited about the fact that an organization that holds a deep-seated distrust in gay men is now letting gay kids join the club. The dynamic creates a puzzle in my head, and I'm still trying to find the corner pieces and determine some structure here. Given the green light by some of the organization's largest donors, including the Mormon and United Methodist churches, and facing the withdrawal of funding from many other donors, more than 60 percent of the BSA's 1,400-delegate-strong National Council voted to lift the ban yesterday.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Vowing to make good on one of his more dramatic campaign promises, President-elect Bill Clinton said yesterday that he intended to lift the 50-year ban on gays in the military.Mr. Clinton spoke about the controversial issue after attending a Veterans Day ceremony at the state Capitol here during which he said he was committed to keeping the United States "the strongest in the world" even as he pared down military forces.In his first major public appearance since his Election Day victory, Mr. Clinton pledged to reform the health care system for veterans, especially those who are homeless, and to retrain those who would lose jobs because of military cutbacks.

In an emotionally charged vote Thursday, the Boy Scouts of America lifted its ban on gay youth starting in January, the latest sign of a shift in American attitudes toward gays and lesbians. After months of debate in local districts, more than 61 percent of the Boy Scouts national council approved a resolution at its annual meeting, overturning the long-standing prohibition on openly gay youth, while retaining a ban on gay adult leaders. Of 1,232 votes, 757 were in favor. Gay advocates called the vote a step in the right direction for the 103-year-old group, among the nation's largest youth organizations, with more than 2.6 million youth members.

WASHINGTON -- They trudged from office to office, marching up and down the bleak institutional corridors of the buildings that house the U.S. Senate.They had come to lobby the senators, but no senator would see them. They did not represent any giant oil companies or insurance firms. They were young and old, white and black, straight and gay. They had all served their country in uniform. And now they were here because they believe that ending the ban on gays in the military is a simple matter of civil rights.

Jim Holobaugh has gone from poster boy to . . . poster boy.In 1987, the ROTC cadet was the stuff of a recruiter's dreams. With his straight A's in all his military science classes and a milk-fed, Midwestern sort of handsomeness, he was selected to appear in a national ROTC recruiting ad. Today, as intelligent and presentable as ever, he still seems the perfect spokesman -- this time, though, as an openly gay man fighting the ban on homosexuals in the military.Mr....

WASHINGTON -- Senate leaders carried a proposed compromise to the White House last night in an effort to head off a showdown with President Clinton over ending the ban on gays in the military but failed to make a final breakthrough.Both sides reported "progress," but Mr. Clinton will talk again this morning with Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and key figure in the effort to avoid a congressional showdown, before he makes a public announcement.Mr. Nunn, appearing angry, left last night's meeting saying curtly: "We made some progress towards reaching a conclusion on this matter."

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton plans to direct Defense Secretary Les Aspin to prepare an executive order that would lift the ban on homosexuals in the military sometime in the next few months, Clinton aides said yesterday.In the meantime, the military will be directed less formally to stop asking recruits about their sexual orientation and discharging people from the armed services when they are found to be homosexuals. These are the two points that would be the main practical effects once an executive order is in place.

Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett visited several Carroll sites Friday as part of his efforts to keep in touch with constituents.Mr. Bartlett, a Frederick Republican who represents the 6th District, talked with volunteers at Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland as they prepared food at the New Windsor Service Center.He also met with representatives of the Literacy Council of Carroll County, the Association for Retarded Citizens of Carroll County and Marada Industries."He likes to spend as much time in the district as he can," said his aide Nancy Stocksdale.

The exact number of marchers at Sunday's gay rights rally in Washington, D.C., is still in dispute, but there is no disagreement about the message: Gays and lesbians are Americans, too. Few issues touch such deep emotions in American life, and many supporters of gay rights had worried that the occasion would give extremists an opportunity to steal the national spotlight and hand conservative anti-gay groups a propaganda bonanza.Indeed the march did have its share of bizarre characters. But any honest view of the gathering must take into account the diversity of the group, a diversity that makes it impossible to condemn or stigmatize homosexuals.

A national scouting alumni organization will be campaigning at the Boy Scouts of America's Baltimore Council Headquarters Friday to promote internal legislation concerning the acceptance of openly gay members. At 12:30 p.m., Scouts for Equality will begin a Council Day of Action in an effort to encourage the Council's national representatives to vote in favor of pending BSA resolutions that will reevaluate bans on gay youth and other issues. The advocacy group is aiming to convey the support it has from local scouts and parents for expanding inclusiveness and equality in scouting.

President Barack Obama could have stayed out of the case against California's ban on gay marriage, known as Proposition 8. The federal government isn't a party to the case, and Mr. Obama could have hidden behind the precedent of previous administrations that declined to get involved in similar suits, like those that struck down bans on interracial marriage or laws criminalizing homosexual conduct. But instead, Mr. Obama's self-described "evolution" on the issue continued this week with a brief arguing that no compelling public interest is served by treating same-sex couples differently from opposite-sex ones.

The leaders of the Boy Scouts of America are expected to vote tomorrow on whether to scrap the organization's long-standing national ban on admitting gay Scouts and Scout leaders, and to replace it with a policy that allows the religious and civic organizations that sponsor individual Scout units to set their own rules on the issue. The ban on gay Scouts is an anachronism that flies in the face of the overdue societal trend toward greater inclusiveness, tolerance and acceptance of diversity.

Twenty years ago, Aaron Becker had just been named valedictorian of Baltimore's City College when he was also awarded the rank of Eagle Scout — the culmination of years of Scouting work, including a seven-month project to make a video about emotionally vulnerable children. But Becker's longtime affiliation with the Boy Scouts of America came to an end recently, when he returned his Eagle medal to the organization because of its decision to uphold a ban on openly gay Scouts and leaders.

Carlisle Barracks, Pa. - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that the Obama administration would move cautiously in shifting policies on gays serving openly in the military, but he signaled that military service members should prepare for possible changes. In his most extensive remarks to date about the ban on gays who serve openly, Gates said he and other military leaders have "begun a dialogue" with President Barack Obama about the issue. Obama promised during last year's presidential campaign to end the ban on gays, and the White House has said recently that it is reviewing the issue.

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers called yesterday for an end to the Pentagon's ban on gays in the military, citing findings in a government report that the prohibition hurts recruiting and retention even as the war in Iraq strains the military's ability to maintain its troop strength. A Government Accountability Office study, released Wednesday, found that since 1993, the Department of Defense had spent at least $191 million to recruit and train replacements for almost 10,000 service members discharged under the ban - including more than 300 with critical language skills.

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers called yesterday for an end to the Pentagon's ban on gays in the military, citing findings in a government report that the prohibition hurts recruiting and retention even as the war in Iraq strains the military's ability to maintain its troop strength. A Government Accountability Office study, released Wednesday, found that since 1993, the Department of Defense had spent at least $191 million to recruit and train replacements for almost 10,000 service members discharged under the ban - including more than 300 with critical language skills.

Carlisle Barracks, Pa. - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that the Obama administration would move cautiously in shifting policies on gays serving openly in the military, but he signaled that military service members should prepare for possible changes. In his most extensive remarks to date about the ban on gays who serve openly, Gates said he and other military leaders have "begun a dialogue" with President Barack Obama about the issue. Obama promised during last year's presidential campaign to end the ban on gays, and the White House has said recently that it is reviewing the issue.

WASHINGTON - Emphasizing that a ban on gay marriages causes "deep and scarring hardship on a very real segment of the community," the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday that the state must extend to gay and lesbian couples the same rights to marriage that it grants to heterosexuals. In a decision that might affect the status of gays and lesbians across the nation, the Massachusetts court flatly rejected the state's rationales for restricting marriage to heterosexual couples.

The state school board moved yesterday to prohibit discrimination against and harassment of gays and lesbians in Maryland schools, less than two years after it backed away from a similar proposal in the face of fierce opposition. The board quietly issued a proposal to add sexual orientation to the list of prohibited forms of discrimination, a change in state school regulations that would occur months after Maryland's General Assembly passed a hotly contested ban on bias against gays and lesbians.