It has been six months since Congress voted to allow military service by
openly gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans, but the law banning their
service is still in effect. The Pentagon has not certified that the
military is ready for the change, and while that process needlessly
drags on, soldiers continue to be discharged for acknowledging their
sexuality. The full repeal of this discriminatory policy should be one
of the highest priorities for the new defense secretary, Leon Panetta.
The armed forces are a conservative, tradition-bound institution, and
proponents of repeal have long known it would not happen overnight.
Scores of regulations had to be rewritten, training sessions had to be
held for changed procedures, and old prejudices had to be overcome. The
Pentagon has tried to anticipate questions about a huge set of possible
circumstances.
In one set of training scenarios
used by the Marines, for example, the guidelines explain that a
military recruiter with strong religious feelings against homosexuality
will no longer be able to refuse to process a gay applicant, but —
because of freedom of religious expression — a military chaplain will be
allowed to preach in a base chapel that homosexuality is a sin.
Nonetheless, service members also have long known that this day is
coming, and six months seems long enough for them to get the message
that the law has changed. Even after the Pentagon and President Obama
officially sign the certification of readiness, the law provides for
another 60-day period before it takes effect.
Beyond changing the regulations, the most pressing issue is whether
commanders will put a firm stop to the harassment of openly gay or
lesbian soldiers that often takes place in locker rooms or barracks. The
rules are clear that commanders are expected to crack down. But there
have been regular reports that training sessions are not always taken seriously, particularly by Marines.
The services will come to accept the new policy, just as they have
absorbed many social changes over the decades, including racial and
sexual integration. But there are clearly some people who will continue
to resist the new orders, and they and their commanders will have to
decide whether they should remain in the military.
Prejudice and harassment apparently led at least one airman to announce
that he was gay and request a discharge from the military under “don’t
ask, don’t tell,” according to The Advocate, a gay publication. The discharge was approved in late April. Three others in the Air Force have also requested and received similar discharges in recent weeks.
Time has run out on the use of “don’t ask, don’t tell” for these kinds
of discharges. One of the points of repeal is to begin to build a
military culture in which no one feels the need to request a discharge
because of intolerance. That may take time, but the best way to start is
for Mr. Panetta and other military leaders to wipe official
discrimination from the books in the next few weeks. Then they can lead
the painstaking effort that will be needed to repair the emotional
damage it has caused.
