New scrutiny of 'don't ask, don't tell'

A move to lift the ban on gays in the military is gaining support. But change is unlikely anytime soon.

from the March 6, 2007 edition

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Recent opinion sampling reflect a similar shift in attitudes.

A Zogby poll of more than 500 service members released late last year found that 73 percent of military members are "comfortable" with lesbians and gays and 23 percent "know for sure" that someone in their unit is homosexual.

Supporters grow but still a minority

An annual poll begun in 2003 by the independent Military Times newspapers has shown a yearly increase in support for homosexuals serving openly in the military. Nevertheless, in its latest poll, only 30 percent of a sampling of 6,000 of subscribers approved of the idea.

Advocates say the current generation of recruits are from the "Will and Grace" generation, people who have been exposed to homosexuality in pop culture and for whom sexual orientation is not considered as important as it is to other generations.

"Within the last two years, it has been truly remarkable how many service members who are openly gay or lesbian are ... serving without incident," says Steve Ralls, a spokesman for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., for gay service members.

But supporters of "don't ask, don't tell" doubt that it will be changed. The apparent momentum for the legislation Meehan introduced is "manufactured," says Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, based in Washington.

Think tanks and advocacy agencies aren't the ones who will sway Congress one way or another. Ultimately, it's the rank and file who will have to be convinced and, in some quarters, that will not come anytime soon.

One soldier who likes to say he joined the military "back when the Army used to be an Army," 31 years ago, said he doesn't understand where these polls saying there is increasing acceptance of homosexuals in the military are coming from.

"Who are they asking? I'm not seeing anything near what the supposed poll data was proclaiming," said the soldier, who asked not to be identified because he had not been cleared to discuss the policy by his senior commander. He said he believes gays are "morally wrong," and has conducted some informal polling in his unit in Georgia to determine its views. No one he has talked to believes homosexuals should serve, he said.

"I'm from a Christian background and I believe what the Bible says," he said. "Automatically, you have to love the sinner, but you don't have to love the sin."

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