The Political World: Voting, Tolerance, and Civility - The State Of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

The number of harassment complaints and discharges of gay service members reached record levels in 2001, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Fund.

The policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell allowed homosexuals to serve in the military as long as they did not identify their orientation. President Clinton approved the policy in 1993 after he failed to end the ban on gay and lesbian service members in the early days of his presidency. Both discharges and complaints have risen nearly every year since the policy's implementation.

The number of discharges rose 102.5% from 1994 to 2001. The number of harassment complaints is up 1,633.8%. From 2000 to 2001, while discharges increased slightly, the number of complaints increased 23.4%. Why did numbers drop in 1999? In part, tolerance programs are thought to have had some effect. But the beating death of gay soldier Barry Winchell at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, is thought to have played a part as well. After the investigation into this case, the military added "don't harass" to its policy of "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue."

The Army discharges the most soldiers, the Coast Guard the fewest. According to the Army, 92% of the separations involved soldiers identifying themselves as gay, violating the policy. Gay activists claim soldiers step forward and identify themselves as gay or lesbian to escape continued harassment. The Navy was the only branch to see their number of discharges fall in 2001. The service discharged 314 sailors, compared to 358 the year before. Women were discharged at twice their rate of service. Women make up 14% of the military and 30% of the discharged in 2001.

Homosexuals have long had a battle with the U.S. military. In 1942, the Armed Forces issued instructions to military psychiatrists to make distinctions between homosexual and "normal" service members. Homosexuals were labeled unsuitable for military service. In 1957, however, a 639-page Navy document called the Crittenden Report concluded there is "no sound basis" for the charge that homosexuals in the military pose a security risk. The Pentagon denied the existence of such a report for nearly 20 years. In 1975, Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, after being dismissed from the Air Force for being gay, sued to be reinstated. Five years later a federal judge ordered just that, but Matlovich accepted a financial settlement instead. A series of high-profile cases followed challenging the policy, involving such figures as Perry Watkins and Miriam Ben-Shalom. In 1992, the General Accounting Office reported that between 1981 and 1990 nearly 17,000 men and women had been dismissed for being homosexual, and that it had cost $493.19 million to replace them.

Keep in mind that these are reported incidents. How many go unreported?

Sources: Stone, Andrea. "Military Discharges of Gays, Rising, Report Says." USA Today, 14 March 14 2002, p. 10A. "Gays and the Military Timeline." Online. Available: http://www.glimm.com April 24, 2002; "Army Base Acknowledges Under-Reporting Gay Discharges." Online. Available: http://www.sldn.org.