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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 14, 1992                   TAG: 9202140446
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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1,000 DESERT STORM VETERANS EJECTED AS GAY

LAST YEAR, more than 1,500 men and women were discharged from U.S. military service solely for being gay. More than 1,000 had risked their lives for their country in Operation Desert Storm.

The Pentagon's policy of discriminating against gays is based on the same narrow-minded bigotry it used for decades in discriminating against blacks and women in the military. It cannot last.

Such a policy has no rational basis. The Pentagon's own studies find gay soldiers' service equal to that of their straight counterparts. The Navy's study found lesbians to be "exemplary" sailors.

The Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Secretary Cheney have finally determined that gays really don't pose a "security clearance" problem after all. And all of the other Western nations that don't discriminate against gays have encountered no difficulties.

Despite these facts and the fact that two-thirds of the American public favors trashing the policy, it drags on. As a gay citizen, I am paying almost half of my federal income taxes to the military. That stands as a painful reminder to me that while I am a first-class taxpayer, I am a second-class citizen. Equal justice under the law? BRYAN WALKER ROANOKE

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