Military setting rules for gays in service

Published 12:01 am Saturday, February 5, 2011

Department of Defense actuaries can tell you that half of all service members are married.

They know that 14 percent of enlisted personnel are women and 11.6 percent are Hispanic. They even know that 20.2 percent of members are Roman Catholic and less than 1 percent are Jewish. And, they will say, 19.5 percent claim no religious preference or decline to identify one.

What actuaries won’t be able to tell you — because they won’t know — is how many homosexuals serve in the military. Sexual orientation is to be “a personal and private matter” under new Defense Department policy guidelines set to prepare for repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law.

Even attempting to collect such data will be banned.

“DoD components, including the services, are not authorized to request, collect or maintain information about the sexual orientation of service members except when it is an essential part of an otherwise appropriate investigation or other official action,” says DADT Repeal Policy Guidance from Clifford Stanley, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.

The data collection ban is part of a rules packet that emphasizes privacy. The objective, Stanley explained, is to treat all members “with dignity and respect and to ensure maintenance of good order and discipline.”

Stanley and Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, recently gave a progress report on implementation efforts. Repeal, Stanley said, is expected to occur sometime later this year though there is no “artificial” target date.

The policy papers confirm that many benefit questions surround gay service members, such as whether partners will qualify for military health care or whether married gay members will get the higher “with dependents” housing allowance.

The Defense of Marriage Act prohibits extension of many federal benefits to same-sex couples including housing allowances, health care and travel reimbursements.

But gay service members will be able to designate partners as beneficiaries for some programs including, possibly, the Service Member’s Group Life Insurance, the federal Thrift Savings Plan, military survivor benefits and the lump sum death gratuity.

Stanley and Cartwright said that repeal is being implemented as quickly as possible and in three phases: writing policies and final service regulations; preparing training materials and the training of chaplains, counselors and commanders; and the training of service members.

All members are to be tutored on how the law allows homosexuals to serve openly and on how all ranks are to accept this without discrimination or harassment. The idea behind the training is that if service members are to be held accountable for adhering to standards of behavior regarding gay members, then they should be briefed on the same.

But service leaders do not expect that every member will get training before the president, defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs can certify to Congress, as the law requires, that the force is ready and repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell can occur in 60 more days without impacting readiness.

Cartwright said the feeling among all the service chiefs is that “moving along expeditiously is better than dragging it out. We’ve learned that from other services (and) other nations that have moved down this path.”

The aim, said Eugene Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale University Law School, is to treat sexual orientation no differently than if a member were, say, left-handed.

“They are not going to get out in front of Congress on what’s required. That’s clear,” Fidell said. “They will do what has to be done in terms of what I’ll call ‘first order (effects)’ of repeal. It’s not that the spirit isn’t willing” to do more to accommodate gay members. “But they are proceeding at a measured pace.”

The policy guidance prohibits the services from creating separate quarters or bathroom facilities for gay members, or otherwise segregating them. But commanders, the guidance explains, “will continue to maintain the discretion to alter berthing or billeting assignments in accordance with service policy in the interest of maintaining morale, good order and discipline, and consistent with performance of the mission.”

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