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 Allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the armed forces causes no significant risk to military morale, a new US study has found.
The study, conducted by four retired US military officers, including an Air Force lieutenant-general responsible for implementing former President Clinton’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, concluded the US ban should be repealed.
"Evidence shows that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly is unlikely to pose any significant risk to morale, good order, discipline or cohesion," the officers state in the study, which examined the armed forces of Britain and Israel where gays and lesbians serve openly.
Gays and lesbians also serve openly in the Australian military and have done so since 1992 following reforms of the Keating Government, which were also supported by most Coalition MPs at the time.
However, in the US the issue has remained controversial. Though President Clinton had promised to repeal the ban on gays in the military, within a year of his election in 1992 he had instituted the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as a compromise to placate opposition from the top brass.
Undermining unit cohesion was a determining factor when Congress passed the 1993 law, which supposedly prevents the military from asking recruits their sexual orientation and inhibits gay military personel from talking about their sexual orientation, engaging in homosexual activity or marrying a same-sex partner.
The new study was sponsored by the Michael D. Palm Center at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which said it picked the panel members to portray a bipartisan representation of the different service branches.
However, one of the officers on the panel, Army Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, has openly endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who has said he would repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Another panel member, Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Minter Alexander, a Republican, said the law should be repealed because it assumes without foundation that gays are disruptive to military cohesion.
Alexander said the politicians should hand over the regulation of sexual misconduct in the military to the Defence Department.
"Who else can better judge whether it's a threat to good order and discipline?" Alexander asked.
Another Republican, Navy Vice Adm. Jack Shanahan, said the current policy caused problems for all service personnel.
"Everyone was living a big lie — the homosexuals were trying to hide their sexual orientation and the commanders were looking the other way because they didn't want to disrupt operations by trying to enforce the law," he said.
The Palm Centre has previously backed academic study of gays and lesbians serving openly in the Australian military.
"When lifting the ban was under discussion in 1992, Australian Defence Force service chiefs argued that allowing homosexuals to serve openly would jeopardise recruitment, troop cohesion and combat effectiveness while spreading AIDS and encouraging predatory behaviour," The Palm Centre’s Assistant Professor Aaron Belkin said in 2000.
"Well that hasn't happened in Australia."
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