Campaign to install 'gays' in military begun

Campaign to install 'gays' in military begun
But public policy group says change would damage U.S. preparedness

Although a new public relations campaign has been launched to convince Congress and the American people that open homosexuality would be good for the United States' armed services, a group that assesses military preparedness says such a policy shift would seriously damage future U.S. military capabilities.

Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Preparedness, told WND yesterday that proponents of the new congressional plan to open the armed services to self-proclaimed homosexuals are using a skewed poll to support their arguments.

The plan comes from U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., and would overturn existing law, which states "the unique circumstances of military service" support "the prohibition against homosexual conduct" as well as those "persons whose presence in the armed forces would create an unacceptable risk to the armed forces' high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion."

But forcing the military to provide an open door to those who choose the homosexual lifestyle would threaten the recruiting potential for the military, she said.

Donnelly told WND that Congress went all through the issue in 1993, when Bill Clinton was president, and ultimately affirmed the legal ban on homosexuals in the military. Clinton responded to that political defeat for his advocacy for homosexuals by creating the "Don't ask, don't tell," office policy, which allows homosexuals to remain in the military if they keep those sexual choices private.

Donnelly said the ban is proper for the military because in that life, unlike in civilian life, "soldiers live in forced intimacy with little or no privacy." But if ever the military allowed open homosexuality, "not only allowing it but promoting the lifestyle, it would alienate young men and women who volunteer to service," she said.

Advocates of the legislation by Meehan, who suffered defeat in 1993 when he and ex-U.S. Rep. Patricia Schroeder, D-Colo., brought up a similar plan, say they have popular opinion on their side. They cite a poll done by Zogby International in December, saying it proves Americans now feel open homosexuality in the military is the preferred way to choose to live.

However, Donnelly's organization noted that "using classic P.R. strategy," the Zogby poll asked about "comfort." The question was; "Are you comfortable interacting with gay people?" and that generated a positive response from 73 percent of the poll participants.

"But this is an innocuous question, about as relevant to the controversy as an inquiry about daytime talk shows: 'Would you rather watch Ellen DeGeneres' show or Rosie O'Donnell on The View,'" the group said.

The real key question was, "Do you agree or disagree with allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military?" the Center said. "On that question, 26 percent of respondents agreed, but 37 percent disagreed. The poll also found that 32 percent of respondents were 'neutral,' and only 5 percent said there were 'not sure.'"

"The 26 percent of respondents who want the law repealed cannot compete with the combined 69 percent of people who are opposed or neutral on repeal. This is hardly a mandate for radical change," CMR said.

Also, those who know first-hand the demands of military life – those in the military – have a high opposition. To a question by the Military Times asking, "Do you think openly homosexual people should be allowed to serve in the military?" only 30 percent said yes and 59 percent said no.

Donnelly also noted that the use of poll numbers in an attempt to support plans to impose the homosexual lifestyle on the U.S. military is just the latest is a series of "media events" orchestrated by homosexual activists.

She said the Zogby poll, for example, said it was designed "in conjunction with the Michael D. Palm Center," an activist group promoting homosexuals in the military, which used to be known as the "Center for Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military."

The poll also purports to be of 545 people "who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan (or in combat support roles directly supporting those operations), from a purchased list of U.S. Military Personnel." But Donnelly said the military doesn't sell personnel lists.

"Activists frequently claim that the greater comfort of younger people with homosexuals is evidence enough to justify changing the law," CMR said. However, "if that were the case, all referenda banning same-sex marriage would have been soundly defeated. On the contrary, the voters … have approved 27 of 28 such referenda [at the state level], often with comfortable majorities."

Donnelly also noted that the Clinton policy of "Don't ask, don't tell," was implemented after Congress voted to write into law a ban on homosexuals in the military, and Bush has chosen to continue that policy.

That policy also should be dropped, she suggested.

"The law says that persons do not have to reveal themselves to someone who might be sexually attracted to them. We separate men and women in the military. We have a healthy respect for the power of sexuality, and a respect for privacy and a respect for good order and discipline," she said.

"In the military you don't get to choose with whom you live – and sometimes die," she said. "We don’t need all these complicating factors like sexual tension."

However, Meehan's plan would not only open the military branches to openly practicing homosexuals, but also would "promote that lifestyle" as normal, said Donnelly. That, she said, "would put the military on the cutting edge of radical social change."

As WND earlier reported, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Clinton says the nation has "evolved" enough so that openly homosexual men and women should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military now.

John Shalikashvili wrote in an opinion piece that the present policy of "Don't ask, don't tell" was a useful "speed bump" to allow tempers to cool and the culture to evolve, but it is now time to move on.

An estimated 10,000 service members who violated the policy have been removed from the services since the policy was instituted in 1993, officials estimate.

But Shalikashvili said he met with "a number" of homosexual soldiers and Marines, including one "openly gay senior sailor" on a nuclear submarine to develop his opinion.