Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 10, 1993 TAG: 9302100362
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL FINKELMAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
CIVIL-RIGHTS BATTLE
ACCORDING to Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, people with "honorable military careers" are being "separated from military service" because of their sexual orientation. Thousands of gays remain in our military. They are distinguished mostly by their anonymity. They enter the military, they serve, and they leave without disrupting anything.Why then do so many Americans, in and out of the military, fear allowing gays to volunteer to serve their country?
Everyone knows gays and lesbians have served - and continue to serve - with skill and pride. The emotional opposition to President Clinton's courageous proposal to lift the ban is not about military efficiency; it is about civil rights.
If gays are able to openly serve their country, it will be more difficult for the nation to deny them basic rights. The ban on military service is actually a shield protecting other restrictions on the civil rights of gays and lesbians. Take down the shield of discrimination by the federal government and the military and other forms of legal discrimination will collapse.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff vehemently oppose dropping the ban. The chiefs sound much like generals who opposed enlisting blacks in the Revolutionary army, objected to black soldiers in the Union army, demanded that Japanese-American soldiers be in segregated units in World War II, opposed integrating the military in the 1950s, and feared women at the service academies.
Military service has often been tied to civil rights. In colonial New York, Jews were second-class citizens. However, after some Jews served in the militia, they were able to successfully argue for greater rights. During the Revolution, thousands of black slaves gained freedom through their military service. The service of black soldiers also led to civil and political rights for free blacks in the Revolutionary-era North.
At the beginning of the Civil War, most Union generals and many politicians opposed enlisting blacks in what they believed was a "white man's war." These generals and politicians knew African-American military service would alter the nature of the war and the nation. They were right. Nearly 200,000 black soldiers provided crucial manpower to the generals who had opposed enlisting them.
Meanwhile, black valor in battle led to advancements in civil rights. It was hard to oppose at least formal legal equality for people who had given their blood and lives for the nation.
After World War II, black veterans helped spur the new civil-rights movements. Symbolic of this was the role of a former Army lieutenant, Jackie Robinson, who had nearly been court-martialed for his refusal to accept on-base segregation. Robinson proved blacks could "fit in" the military and the national pastime.
The opposition to gays in the military sounds suspiciously like the opposition to changes in the army from the Revolution to the '70s. Ironically, Gen. Colin Powell, the first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, espouses prejudices against gays similar to the prejudices blacks previously faced.
Powell's predecessors believed blacks, Asians and women could not "fit in," and that they would "destroy morale." In the Civil War, black soldiers wrote eloquent essays about courage and glory with their own blood; the Nisei brigade - made up of Japanese-Americans - was our most decorated World War II unit; in Panama and Desert Storm, female West Pointers provided distinguished and courageous leadership.
The lessons of history show the military should drop its ban on gays and lesbians. When previously excluded groups were allowed to enter into the armed forces, the military grew stronger.
By seeking "a few good men and women" without regard to religion, race, gender or sexual orientation, the military will expand its pool of potential recruits, thus enriching and improving itself. This change will more firmly root the armed forces in our democratic traditions, thus strengthening political and popular support for a military that looks like the rest of America.
The integration of the Army under Truman, which top brass opposed, helped lead to greater civil rights for blacks. Today, tolerance toward gays and lesbians will lead to greater civil rights and a reaffirmation of democratic values. It is time the generals took the lead on an issue of civil rights instead of dragging their feet.