Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 29, 1993 TAG: 9301290119
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
GAY-BAN REVISION REACHED
The Clinton administration, military leaders and Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sam Nunn, D-Ga., reached agreement Thursday night on a new policy to suspend the ban on military service by homosexuals.At the same time, federal District Judge Terry Hatter Jr., ruling in the highly publicized case of Navy Petty Officer Keith Meinhold, declared the gay ban unconstitutional, saying it violated the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws.
Legally, Hatter's decision applies only in the portions of California covered by his court's jurisdiction, but politically, it is certain to strengthen President Clinton's hand in seeking to end the ban nationwide.
Secretary of Defense Les Aspin repeatedly has warned military leaders that they should seek a compromise with Clinton because the ban eventually will would be overturned by judicial fiat. "My argument to the military is: Sooner or later, the courts are going to come at you on this issue," Aspin said in a recent television interview.
Under the new policy, which Clinton is expected to announce today, the military will:
Stop asking recruits about their sexual orientation.
Suspend investigations to ferret out gays in uniform.
Suspend current cases seeking to discharge gays, if those cases are based solely on homosexual status rather than on any improper conduct.
Clinton will not formally lift the ban, however, for six months, giving Congress time to hold hearings on the issue.
Clinton had hoped to announce his new policy Thursday, but held off because of last-minute haggling, primarily involving Nunn, White House and Pentagon officials said.
"Agreement has been reached a couple of times and Nunn has been the sticking point," an aide to Aspin said some hours before the final agreement was reached.
Officials said Nunn had raised objections to the policy even after the uniformed service chiefs had agreed to it.
He came on board, however, after a meeting with Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine, and several other Democrats at which they hammered out language on how the military should handle cases of avowed gays between now and Clinton's eventual order.
Nunn's approval was crucial because congressional Republicans have threatened to force a vote on a bill that would write the ban on gay service into law. With Nunn's support, White House officials were confident they could easily put off any such move. If Nunn had balked, a bill to codify the ban probably would have passed the Senate, officials said.
Hatter's ruling comes one month after he ordered Meinhold, 30, temporarily reinstated to the Navy pending his formal decision on the constitutionality of the gay ban. Meinhold is a 12-year veteran who was honorably discharged in August after disclosing on national television that he was gay.
Thursday's ruling marked the first time the government had been forced by a court to reinstate a gay service member.
In the ruling, Hatter wrote that "gays and lesbians should not be banned from serving our country in the absence of conduct which interferes with the military mission."