Policy On Gays

This is an edited excerpt of a Chicago Tribune editorial, which was published Friday.THE chilling story of 21-year-old Army private Barry Winchell illustrates, as if any additional evidence were needed, why the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military is unworkable -- and why it ought to be eliminated.Mr. Winchell enlisted in 1997, filled with dreams of becoming a helicopter pilot. But because he was gay, he soon was subjected to months of harassment and was ultimately bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat by fellow private Calvin Glover.

A policy on gays in the military is not easy. There are two ga members of Congress, and they disagree.The meaning of "Honor Code" at the Naval Academy in the stolen exam case (like the Mafia's) makes clear how the Tailhook scandal could happen.They wanted a hawk for poet laureate. So they got Dove.Cheer up. Danes approved the Maastricht Treaty."Star Wars" is being converted from a black hole to a burnt-out nova.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration, making a full-scale legal defense of both old and new government policies on gays in uniform, has told two federal courts that the issue must be left almost entirely to the discretion of the military.In a move aimed at thwarting complaints of unconstitutional bias against homosexuals in the military, Justice Department lawyers argued that a judgment by the military services that homosexuals must be treated differently to meet military needs is enough to satisfy the Constitution.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, said yesterday he would like to write President Clinton's policy on gays in the military into law -- if he and the rest of his panel can figure it out.There was tremendous confusion among the senators on the committee at the first of two hearings to sort out details of the so-called "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy that eases the military's 50-year-old ban on...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate endorsed a tougher version of President Clinton's policy on gays in the armed forces yesterday, defeating a proposal to ease the policy and calling homosexuality "an unacceptable risk" to morale in the armed forces.An amendment proposed by Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, which would have given the president the final say in policy on gays in the military, was defeated as expected by a vote of 63-33. Key Democratic leaders voted against Ms. Boxer's proposal.

WASHINGTON -- No politician with the common sense of a gnat would choose to get into a roaring controversy over the rights of homosexuals. But President Clinton now has no choice but to press ahead with his plan to reverse the prohibition against gays and lesbians in the armed forces.With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to say candidate Clinton might have been wiser to have hedged his promise to the gay community during the campaign. There was no reason to believe gays and lesbians would prefer either George Bush or Ross Perot.

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon's top lawyer denied yesterday that the Clinton administration was creating a "zone of privacy" for gay soldiers and told Congress that homosexuals still ran the risk of being kicked out of the military if they went to a gay bar, read gay magazines or marched in a gay rights parade.Pentagon General Counsel Jamie Gorelick, whom the administration sent to Capitol Hill to explain President Clinton's policy on gays in the military, told the House Armed Services Committee that a soldier who visited a gay bar more than once or also read gay magazines created a "pattern of activity" that military commanders could construe as a "nonverbal statement" that he or she was homosexual.

The man on the radio needs jumper cables attached to his tongue. He's so agitated about this gays-in-the-military business that the words can't find their way out of his mouth fast enough. Nouns, verbs, all manner of modifiers are tumbling madly, breathlessly, a random spill out of a verbal revolving door, until finally, exasperatedly, comes this:"Homosexual literature," he cries. "They'll be bringing homosexual literature into United States Army barracks."Minutes later, I reach the office of a friend of mine, who is gay and more open about it than the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff would find acceptable if he ever wished to abandon civilian life.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's policy on gays in the military may ultimately be upheld by the courts, but for now it is in deep legal trouble, and uncertainty over its future seems likely to last for months.Just as the president appeared this week to be putting the issue behind him by getting his new policy through Congress, the gays policy was under attack from two federal judges -- one here and the other in California.Justice Department lawyers have been going to court after court for weeks to defend the Pentagon against a variety of constitutional challenges by gay soldiers or sailors.

Bill just found out the brass who have to make it work say his policy on gays in the military wouldn't. Big surprise.This administration can get something done if Bill will lead where Tom Foley doesn't.

Rep. Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania, an Iraq war veteran, is making a push this summer for a congressional repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military. Even back in 1993, when President Bill Clinton first proposed this artless dodge, a majority of Americans favored letting gays serve openly. Sixteen years later, the numbers are overwhelming; a CNN/Opinion Research poll in December found 81 percent of Americans now share that belief. But not in Congress. Mr. Murphy has about 160 co-sponsors, almost all of them Democrats.

BOSTON - Twelve gays and lesbians brought suit yesterday against the federal government, seeking to overturn the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bars homosexuals from openly serving in the military. The six men and six women, representing every armed service branch except the Marines, also asked to be reinstated in the military. Each had served in the war on terrorism, and all were dismissed after they disclosed their sexual orientations to superiors. The Bush administration asked U.S. District Judge George A. O'Toole Jr. to dismiss the case, known as Cook v. Rumsfeld, arguing, "Courts should not second-guess congressional judgment."

This is an edited excerpt of a Chicago Tribune editorial, which was published Friday.THE chilling story of 21-year-old Army private Barry Winchell illustrates, as if any additional evidence were needed, why the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military is unworkable -- and why it ought to be eliminated.Mr. Winchell enlisted in 1997, filled with dreams of becoming a helicopter pilot. But because he was gay, he soon was subjected to months of harassment and was ultimately bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat by fellow private Calvin Glover.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's policy on gays in the military may ultimately be upheld by the courts, but for now it is in deep legal trouble, and uncertainty over its future seems likely to last for months.Just as the president appeared this week to be putting the issue behind him by getting his new policy through Congress, the gays policy was under attack from two federal judges -- one here and the other in California.Justice Department lawyers have been going to court after court for weeks to defend the Pentagon against a variety of constitutional challenges by gay soldiers or sailors.

WASHINGTON -- The Senate endorsed a tougher version of President Clinton's policy on gays in the armed forces yesterday, defeating a proposal to ease the policy and calling homosexuality "an unacceptable risk" to morale in the armed forces.An amendment proposed by Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, which would have given the president the final say in policy on gays in the military, was defeated as expected by a vote of 63-33. Key Democratic leaders voted against Ms. Boxer's proposal.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration, making a full-scale legal defense of both old and new government policies on gays in uniform, has told two federal courts that the issue must be left almost entirely to the discretion of the military.In a move aimed at thwarting complaints of unconstitutional bias against homosexuals in the military, Justice Department lawyers argued that a judgment by the military services that homosexuals must be treated differently to meet military needs is enough to satisfy the Constitution.

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon's top lawyer denied yesterday that the Clinton administration was creating a "zone of privacy" for gay soldiers and told Congress that homosexuals still ran the risk of being kicked out of the military if they went to a gay bar, read gay magazines or marched in a gay rights parade.Pentagon General Counsel Jamie Gorelick, whom the administration sent to Capitol Hill to explain President Clinton's policy on gays in the military, told the House Armed Services Committee that a soldier who visited a gay bar more than once or also read gay magazines created a "pattern of activity" that military commanders could construe as a "nonverbal statement" that he or she was homosexual.

The man on the radio needs jumper cables attached to his tongue. He's so agitated about this gays-in-the-military business that the words can't find their way out of his mouth fast enough. Nouns, verbs, all manner of modifiers are tumbling madly, breathlessly, a random spill out of a verbal revolving door, until finally, exasperatedly, comes this:"Homosexual literature," he cries. "They'll be bringing homosexual literature into United States Army barracks."Minutes later, I reach the office of a friend of mine, who is gay and more open about it than the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff would find acceptable if he ever wished to abandon civilian life.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, said yesterday he would like to write President Clinton's policy on gays in the military into law -- if he and the rest of his panel can figure it out.There was tremendous confusion among the senators on the committee at the first of two hearings to sort out details of the so-called "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy that eases the military's 50-year-old ban on...

A policy on gays in the military is not easy. There are two ga members of Congress, and they disagree.The meaning of "Honor Code" at the Naval Academy in the stolen exam case (like the Mafia's) makes clear how the Tailhook scandal could happen.They wanted a hawk for poet laureate. So they got Dove.Cheer up. Danes approved the Maastricht Treaty."Star Wars" is being converted from a black hole to a burnt-out nova.