Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 12, 1993 TAG: 9302120523
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
POWELL MISSES ECHOES FROM '40S
IT IS especially disappointing that Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been undermining President Clinton's effort to overturn the ban on gays in the military.Powell insists his dispute with the president has nothing to do with his well-publicized interest in early retirement. But he and other high military officials have seen fit to intrude into the politics of homophobia behind the back of their commander-in-chief, while presenting prejudiced advice to the president.
No longer do Powell and others argue that homosexuals would comprise a security threat. (Gays presumably would be less vulnerable to blackmail if they could acknowledge their orientation than if they have to hide the fact, as they do now.)
No longer do Powell and others argue that gays are unfit to perform military duties. (Too many gays have served quietly and with distinction - some of them heroically - in all of America's wars, and too many in fact serve today in all the services, for anyone credibly to make such a claim.)
No longer do they argue about the dangers of sexual predation. (A strict code of conduct would deal with such problems; and while they're at it, the military could do a far better job enforcing rules against sexual abuse of women, which is a real problem.)
No longer do they argue that allowing gays into the military would amount to an endorsement of their sexual preference. (Overturning the ban would only end job discrimination; it wouldn't require anyone to appreciate or approve of homosexuality.)
Because gays have always been in the military without detriment to national security, Powell is left with arguments regarding not how gays act so much as what they are.
Simply by acknowledging their homosexual status, it is contended, gays will seriously undermine morale, teamwork and discipline in the service.
The Joint Chiefs chairman sides understandably with his colleagues' strong and emotionally laden opinions on the matter. But as the nation's highest-ranking black officer, Powell ought to make a point of reading an old report presented to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942. The study came from a general military board appointed by Navy Secretary Frank Knox.
"Men on board ship," said the report, "live in particularly close association . . . . How many white men would choose that their closest associates in sleeping quarters . . . be men of another race? The general board believes that the answer is `few' if `any' and further believes that if the issue were forced, there would be a lowering of contentment, teamwork and discipline in the service." Sound familiar?
Powell is a product of the successful racial integration that followed Roosevelt's rejection of that report. One day, the military will be able to openly abide and advance gays as well - based not on their private sexual orientation, but on their job performance.