AD COULD SPUR EFFORT TO MAINTAIN GAY BAN

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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 7, 1993                   TAG: 9301070267
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY   
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Medium
AD COULD SPUR EFFORT TO MAINTAIN GAY BAN
A Washington-based lobbying group has run a test advertisement in Virginia's Hampton Roads military community that could lead to a national campaign to keep the ban on homosexuals in the armed forces.
"Every good soldier knows you don't march through a minefield," read the newspaper ad, which showed a soldier's combat boot about to step on a land mine.
The ad, published Sunday in The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, was an attempt to determine what the military population thinks about the pledge by President-elect Clinton to end the homosexual ban, said Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council, a conservative think tank that paid for the ad.
"This was a test for us," Bauer said. "We wanted to see what kind of response we received in an area of the country that understands military issues."
The Hampton Roads area has more than 135,000 active-duty members and more than 300,000 family members, reservists or retired members.
The responses received by the council this week will determine whether it launches a nationwide campaign, Bauer said. The ad asked supporters to call the Family Research Council and to mail a coupon to Clinton in Little Rock, Ark., urging him to reconsider his pledge to lift the ban.
Ending the homosexual ban "will erode civilian authority and weaken the fitness of our forces," the ad said. "Please think of the drastic effect on the lives of our troops and their families."
According to the ad, militant homosexual groups are pressuring Clinton to allow "open homosexuality" in the military and to drop HIV testing of recruits.
"If the ban is lifted and testing is stopped, all military personnel, including families and retirees, will be adversely affected," the ad said. "Unit morale, combat effectiveness, living conditions and benefits for soldiers, sailors and their families will be forever altered."
Bauer served in the Reagan administration as undersecretary of education and as domestic policy adviser.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB