Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 16, 1993 TAG: 9305160039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DONNA CASSATA ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
It was one more boost to Sen. Sam Nunn's campaign to sway public opinion for the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military - and yet another blow to President Clinton's efforts to end the prohibition.
"That photograph has done more damage to this issue than a thousand generals testifying against it," said David Smith of the Campaign for Military Service, an amalgam of groups working to end the ban. "Bunks and showers stir hysteria. Sam Nunn knows that."
Nunn's hearings stem from a controversy that has plagued Clinton. Determined to repeal the ban on gays in the military, Clinton ran into a rebellion in Congress and compromised:
The ban would remain, but recruits would no longer be asked their sexual orientation. In the meantime, Defense Secretary Les Aspin would draw up a formal order by July 15 to end the ban.
Nunn pledged "fair, thorough and objective" hearings, but his approach has its critics.
"The meetings are designed to give Sam Nunn the advice he wanted to hear," said Ann Lewis, a political consultant and sister of Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., one of two openly gay members of Congress.
"Three sailors lying down in the bunk - that is almost too much of orchestrating," said Claibourne Darden, a Democratic political analyst from Georgia.
The trip to Norfolk on Monday was not the first time that Nunn, D-Ga., and Sen. John Warner, R-Va., had been on a submarine. They are longtime members of the Armed Services Committee - Nunn is chairman, Warner is the second-ranking Republican.
Yet there they were - Nunn, Warner and other members of the committee, visiting bunks, bathrooms and showers on submarines and ships at the Norfolk Naval Base, with news media in tow.
"The American people have to know," Nunn said when questioned about the necessity of the visit.
"We have taken every suggested witness they've had, a whole lot of names," he said of the gay-rights groups. "We're doing the best we can. . . . We'll never have a hearing to please them."
Nunn has proposed a compromise: not questioning recruits about sexual orientation; imposing a strict code of conduct; and not ferreting out homosexuals. But the plan retains the ban on those who openly assert their homosexuality.
He amplified on his proposal Saturday, explaining that it would be permissible for a gay soldier to answer questions about his or her sexual orientation on a confidential form, such as a security-clearance questionnaire.
Asked if there would be different standards of conduct for gay and heterosexual soldiers, Nunn did not answer directly.
"You can't draw the line on-base or off-base, but I certainly don't envision that we're going to have sodomy squads or sex squads going around trying to look at people's private lives," he said. "Unless the individual brings to the attention of the people around him his sexual orientation in a way that is obvious and open, then it seems to me they ought to be protected."
A day after the tour at Norfolk, Nunn presided over a hearing in Washington in which two American war heroes - Persian Gulf War commander Norman Schwarzkopf and Marine Col. Fred Peck, just back from five months in Somalia - offered compelling testimony for the ban.
If the ban is lifted, Clinton's military would be "just like many of the Iraqi troops who sat in the deserts of Kuwait, forced to execute orders they didn't believe in," said Schwarzkopf.
Peck offered a riveting reason for opposing the ban, telling senators of news he had learned just 48 hours earlier: his eldest son is gay.
"I spent 27 years of my life in the military, and I know what it would be like for him if he went in. And it would be hell," Peck said.
A senior Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a military panel is considering two alternatives that would modify Clinton's pledge to end the 50-year-old ban. One embraces Nunn's compromise, while the other would allow gays to serve but would prohibit homosexual conduct.
"The Senate is moving toward the Nunn position," Warner said Friday. "The testimony this week charted the course to `don't ask, don't tell.' "
Frank said keeping silent about sexual orientation may be an acceptable condition.
"We are not talking about people who are burning with the desire to announce their sexual orientation," he told the Boston Globe.
by CNB