A bill has been referred to the House Armed Services Committee that, if passed, would repeal the current “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy concerning homosexuality and replace it with a policy of nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Editor’s note: Names marked with (*) are pseudonyms created to protect certain sources who could be discharged from duty for revealing their true names.
Uniformed men and women gracefully flow across the ballroom’s dance floor. The male cadets stare into their girlfriends’ eyes, connecting with each other in a room full of people, while the female cadets rest their heads on the chests of their male counterparts.
It’s only a ROTC Military Ball, but it feels like millions of love stories preserved in letters from the World War era.
However, these relaxed social gatherings can be more like minefields for some cadets, who aren’t allowed to show others who they truly are.
“All the guys bring girlfriends and I have to bring a friend to come with me and pose as my girlfriend,” said Robert Ryan*, a gay ROTC cadet at MSU.
Ryan is one of many cadets across the country who have entered the military under the protection of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and now must conceal their sexual orientation or risk being discharged from service.
“I don’t think anyone else is forced to say something else when they’re at work,” Ryan said.
The movement
Since its inception in 1993, “don’t ask, don’t tell” has been a lightning rod for controversy. Passed during the Clinton administration, the military’s homosexual conduct policy forbids military officers from asking any recruit about their sexual orientation unless it is part of an investigation.
Prior to this, gay people simply were not allowed to serve, MSU law professor Frank Ravitch said.
“The original idea was to protect, so that individuals would be able to stay in the military,” Ravitch said. “There was an even more Draconion policy before that.”
But the legislation has caused about 12,500 men and women to be discharged from service. Representatives for the U.S. Department of Defense could not be reached for comment.
Now, 16 years later, the movement to repeal the policy is gathering momentum.
President Barack Obama guaranteed he would put an end to it during a speech Saturday in front of the country’s largest gay rights group.
A recent Gallup poll found that support to repeal the policy is growing
and has increased 12 percent among conservatives since Nov. 2004.
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who is chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, has opposed “don’t ask, don’t tell” since it first was introduced.
“He will be holding a hearing sometime this fall on the policy,” said Tara Andringa, Levin’s spokeswoman. “That’s the first step in the process.”
A U.S. House of Representatives bill to abolish the policy — the Military Readiness Enhancement Act — currently sits in the House Armed Services Committee.
Although these could be signs of the end of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” era, several similar bills in the past have failed to repeal it.
The secret life
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Depending on when you meet her, Katie Jones* could be one of two different people. In the cadet lounge of Demonstration Hall she’s just one of many other ROTC recruits enlisting to help pay for college and set themselves up for a job out of school.
But meet her any other time and Jones is a part of the gay community, occasionally heading to gay bars with friends and actively dating.
If those two lives ever were to intersect, Jones’ future would be in jeopardy. Jones could be forbidden from continuing her career, found guilty of nothing other than being herself.
“Just being a woman, I feel behind the eight ball already,” she said. “This extra secret doesn’t help much.”
The government invests a significant amount of money into educating and training each cadet, and the fact that the law requires them to be discharged because of their sexuality seems unjustified, Ryan said.
“It’s kind of sad that at any point, you can lose everything you’ve worked so hard for,” Ryan said. “They make exceptions for people that might have medical conditions that might not make them good (soldiers). It’s just sad realizing there’s nothing physically wrong with me. I’m very capable, I’m as good of a leader as any cadet to come out of the program, but that’s their sole qualifier.”
Change of culture
Accepting gay people into the military might not be just a matter of repealing legislation, Jones said. In order for gays to be completely included, she said, the military needs a real change of culture.
“It’s a very taboo subject,” she said. “Some of the guys, some of them (who) went to basic (training) or are in National Guard units joke, ‘Oh yeah, we had a faggot in our platoon,’ and make fun of him like he’s not a real person.”
If Congress were to reverse “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Jones said she doesn’t foresee quick change to the attitudes of some of her fellow cadets. In fact, she said she worries being openly gay in the military might alienate as much as it integrates.
“For the time being, repealing the policy would be a living hell,” she said.
But while some in the military might not completely welcome homosexuals, not all soldiers share that opinion, said Sterling Raehtz, a geography graduate student and ROTC cadet.
“It’s not really a big deal who’s sitting next to me, as long as they’re a good solider,” Raehtz said. “When bullets start flying, sexual orientation doesn’t matter to me.”
To Lieutenant Colonel James Rouse, chairman of the MSU Department of Military Science and a member of the Military Education Advisory/Consultative Committee, personal beliefs play no part in how he accepts and trains cadets.
“It doesn’t matter whether (the policy) is right or wrong or whether I agree or disagree — it’s a law passed by Congress,” Rouse said. “It’s the regulation and that’s what we have to abide by. … It’s not our call.”
