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| A TELLING POLICY | |
 December 9, 1999 
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INSTRUCTOR: Anyone? Anyone? TOM BEARDEN: Through classroom lectures and instruction manuals, trainees
are told that the Pentagon has a "don't ask, don't tell, don't
pursue" policy, which says "the Department of Defense will
not ask, nor will members be required to reveal their sexual preference.
Homosexual orientation is a personal and private matter, and will not
be questioned during service. However, homosexual conduct |
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| A working policy? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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INSTRUCTOR: Go! Let's go! You got a problem, then I'm gonna drop you in the water. Let's go! TOM BEARDEN: Lackland's process now requires trainees to have confidential meetings with their squadron operations officer and with Air Force lawyers, and gives them the chance to recant their statement. Lieutenant Colonel Warren Abraham is a squadron ops officer.
TOM BEARDEN: Before the new procedures went into effect in March, homosexual discharges were running at 40 to 50 per month at Lackland. There have been just over 40 discharges in the succeeding eight months. Gay rights advocates applauded Lackland's actions, but say the number of separations for reasons of sexual orientation from all the services is too high. The Service Member's Legal Defense Network, a gay and lesbian advocacy group, says the Pentagon has violated its own policy repeatedly, ever since it went into effect six years ago. Michelle Benecke is the co- director of the SLDN.
TOM BEARDEN: Benecke says gay and lesbian service members are being investigated and kicked out when they shouldn't be-- people like former Airman Andre Taylor, who now works for the SLDN in Washington, DC. Taylor enlisted in the Air Force in 1994, hoping to make a career of it. He received several commendations for his work as an aircraft refueler. But after serving almost three years, while stationed in Hawaii, Air Force investigators called him in and asked if he knew the definition of sodomy.
TOM BEARDEN: Taylor says he was one of 17 servicemen who were investigated after Air Force prosecutors reached a plea bargain with an airman who was later convicted of homosexual rape. His sentence was allegedly reduced in exchange for the names of other homosexuals serving in the military. Taylor says the incident was a clear violation of the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. ANDRE TAYLOR: The military is not supposed to ask, you're not supposed to tell, and the military is not supposed to pursue you. In this case, I was pursued. I was asked a definition, and I said I know the definition. Four months later, I'm discharged, because I don't make a statement. There's no evidence found against me. And the military has pursued rigorously against me. And with that, they have ruined my career, they have ruined my name, my relationship with friends and family, all because of an allegation that was never founded, never a statement made by me. |
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| Harassment in the services | ||||||||||||||||||||
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RUDY DE LEON: It's an important point, and I think the fact that there have not been subsequent cases of this type reflects the fact that we're constantly working the policy to make sure that we are fair in its implementation. We have tried in our new memorandums to really provide additional instruction on how the policy works to commanders, to military lawyers, who may in the field be dealing with these actual cases. And I think our focus there is to make sure that when our commanders encounter one of these cases again, that they are fair, clear, and understand the policy as they implement it.
WOMAN: If I didn't comply with what the guys wanted-- I mean, if they wanted to take me out to dinner and I didn't want to go-- then they would basically assume, or just judge me from, you know, what they thought or what they wanted to think, which was either I was homosexual, or I just didn't like men. TOM BEARDEN: And they would say this to you? WOMAN: Yes. TOM BEARDEN: Specifically, how would they say?
TOM BEARDEN: She says one of the harassers was her direct superior. WOMAN: I had worked down below decks, and there was a petty officer that... he, from the day I went down there to work down there, he just... I mean, day after day, he would constantly, constantly harass me, want me to go out with him, just, I mean, saying sexual comments to me all the time. TOM BEARDEN: Then she says she received a written death threat on the window of her truck, and says her superiors still didn't act. WOMAN: The commanders, the high-up people, need to be more aware that this stuff is going on. This stuff, this conversation and all these questions does go on. You know, there is going to be, like, legal action taken for it. I mean, just to know that people... people will stop doing it. |
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| An opportunity to serve | ||||||||||||||||||||
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RUDY DE LEON: We're looking at each of the cases, but at the heart of our policy, as articulated by the Secretary of Defense, is our commitment to make sure that each service member has an opportunity to serve in an environment where they're not dealing with harassment, that they're serving in a very professional environment. TOM BEARDEN: Gay rights advocates say the only way to be truly fair to everyone would be to allow gays to serve openly. This active-duty sailor says the policy forces him to live a lie, looking over his shoulder every hour of the day. He asked us to conceal his identity, because his remarks would end his career.
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| A changing military? | ||||||||||||||||||||
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TOM BEARDEN: Would it be better to simply have people able to serve openly as gay people? SAILOR: Absolutely. Absolutely. It would take a lot of stress out of the person's life, everybody's life in general. And hopefully, we're heading that way with the newer generation that's coming in the military. TOM BEARDEN: Charles G. Cooper is a highly decorated retired three-star Marine Corps general. He disagrees with the sailor, and says allowing gays to serve openly would destroy morale and unit cohesiveness.
TOM BEARDEN: Steve Loomis served in the Army for nearly 20 years, received two bronze stars, a purple heart, a combat infantry badge, and other honors. But when the army found out this lieutenant colonel was gay, he was forced to leave the service. He says the general is wrong, and that the same standard needs to be applied to all members, regardless of their sexual orientation.
TOM BEARDEN: A recent study conducted by a consortium of universities found that 76 percent of people currently serving in the military oppose allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly; 27 percent said they would leave the military if that became permissible. But it would take an act of Congress to change the basic law that still forbids open homosexual conduct. |
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TOM
BEARDEN: Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas, calls itself
"the gateway to the Air Force." Every new inductee goes through
basic military training here, from the obstacles of the "confidence
course" to instruction on the Pentagon's policy on gay and lesbian
servicemen and women. 
is
not compatible with military service, and will subject a member to discharge
from the armed forces." Since the policy went into effect in 1993,
the number of discharges for homosexuality in all the services has gone
up over 80 percent. Last year, 1,149 cases were reported, compared to
597 in 1994. Lackland Air Force Base had the highest rate in the entire
armed forces, so Lackland changed its procedures. Lieutenant Colonel
Buck Jones is deputy commander of the 737th training group. He says
they suspected a lot of recruits were making false statements about
their sexual orientation simply to get out of the Air Force quickly.
LT.
COL. BUCK JONES, U.S. Air Force: We did an internal review of why we
were having such large numbers of homosexual discharges, and we found
that our process was the quickest way out of basic military training--
generally, seven to ten days, once a trainee made a statement, they
were discharged out of the Air Force. 
LT.
COL. WARREN ABRAHAM, U.S. Air Force: When we're talking recant, and retracting
statements, we're talking about individuals that made a truly false
official statement. Again, getting back to the policy, the policy is
not that homosexuals cannot serve in the Air Force. The policy is that
there are certain acts associated with homosexual orientation that the
Air Force, DOD, does not condone. 
MICHELLE
BENECKE: Uniformed leadership has failed to implement this policy as
it was intended. They have failed to stop asking, pursuits, and harassment,
and in six years, they have held no one accountable for thousands of
documented violations.
ANDRE
TAYLOR: When I did let them know I knew the definition of sodomy, they
asked me if I could continue speaking, but at first they would like
to read my rights to me, and that's when I found out that I was suspect
under this investigation, under sodomy. I didn't know who turned my
name in, I didn't know who had suspected me of anything at the time,
as well. 
TOM
BEARDEN: Pentagon officials say the case in Hawaii was unique, and responded
with a 1998 directive to the services. It said "agreeing to limit
or reduce the sentence of a service member charged with serious criminal
offenses in return for information concerning the consensual homosexual
conduct of others is inappropriate, and is inconsistent with the spirit
of this policy." Rudy De Leon is the Undersecretary of Defense
for Personnel and Readiness. He says the Pentagon took the Hawaii case
seriously, and that there haven't been similar cases since. 
TOM
BEARDEN: The case of Army Private Barry Winchell has led to still further
recent changes in the policy. Shortly after his death, the Pentagon
released a memorandum to the services that directed commanders to investigate
and stop harassment when it is reported. It also said such harassment
could not be used as a pretext to investigate the victim's sexual orientation.
This woman, who recently left the Navy, says her commanders didn't intervene
when she was harassed aboard an aircraft carrier. She says she was accused
of being a lesbian because she rejected the advances of male sailors.
She asked us not to use her name. 
WOMAN:
"You're a lesbian. Are you gay? You're not going out with me, you
must be gay." 
TOM
BEARDEN: The SLDN says such harassment is common, and says the Pentagon
isn't doing enough to stop it. But Undersecretary De Leon says the policy
clearly does not tolerate harassment. 
SAILOR:
You've got to keep your walls up, because if you were to tell someone,
you're not really sure if that individual will tell someone else, say
it to the wrong person, and it will just explode in your face, regardless
of how good a worker you are. After 11 years, I know when to speak,
when not to speak, who I can talk to and who I can't, and what subjects
to bring up in the group. I've learned to separate my personal life
from my work life, completely and totally. 
LT.
GEN. CHARLES G. COOPER: Well, I don't agree with him at all. I don't
think that we need him. He's not the kind of person that we need to
defend our nation, because he's going to contaminate the rest of the
population of the people that he's serving with. Now, he can tell you
that he never practices his sexual mores with his shipmates, but he's
going to practice them with somebody, and when he goes to sea for six
months, and all he's got - people around are shipmates. 
STEVE
LOOMIS: Most gays, lesbians, bisexuals in the military keep their lives
private. They are... in their relations, they are off-duty, off-post
and entirely consensual. And that is the problem: If you are going to
treat homosexuals for that, how can you justify not treating heterosexuals
by the same standard? When you talk about good order and discipline,
and morale of the troops, one of the worst things that you can do to
any unit is to treat a portion of that unit differently. We know that
to be true from the past experience that we've had in integrating blacks
into the military and the experience of integrating women into the military,
that both of those groups, when they were treated equally and by the
same standards, they both came up to and exceeded the standard that
anyone - most people ever expected for anybody in the military, let
alone a minority group. I submit to you that a number of gays, lesbians
and bisexuals in the military have also had that achievement, but they
of course, have had to remain private about that.
LT.
GEN. CHARLES G. COOPER: If you're going to have a military that's rife
with homosexuals, operating openly, I think your recruiting is going
to be shot in the tail, really. I think particularly the Christian families,
the good Catholic families, the people that stand for everything that's
opposed to homosexuality, are not going to let their youngsters join
and serve, and people that are in the service are not going to stay
when they're subjected to this type of thing. We have a continuing struggle
to bring in quality people into the military now, and the Marine Corps
has been pretty successful, but we sell intangibles, and we sell brotherhood,
pride, integrity, mutual support, unselfish pursuit of excellence. That
doesn't allow any room for homosexual activity.