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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 24, 1993                   TAG: 9306240058
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

WHITE HOUSE READIES RETREAT OVER GAY BAN

"I think he recognizes that it's very difficult, that there is not support from Congress for a complete lifting of the ban," White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said.

White House officials said they were awaiting recommendations from Defense Secretary Les Aspin, who has been struggling to produce a compromise between Clinton's promise and intense opposition from the Pentagon and Congress to lifting the ban.

The issue has been a major political headache for Clinton, distracting attention from his economic plans and requiring him to defend a stand on an issue that has bitterly divided Americans.

Moving cautiously toward a decision, the White House kept its distance from a reported compromise proposal from the Pentagon to allow homosexuals to serve in the military only if they keep their sexual orientation private.

That reported compromise would ban military personnel from declaring they are homosexuals or from engaging in homosexual conduct anywhere. It also would label homosexual conduct as inconsistent with military service.

Gay activists said they would reject any language about homosexuality or homosexual conduct being inconsistent with military service.

"That's totally unacceptable," said Tim McFeeley, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund. "That just has to go.

"And we believe that people who conduct themselves according to the rules should not be dismissed because they're gay, no matter how people find out that they're gay," he said.

McFeeley said he could accept some restrictions on a member of military publicly declaring he or she is a homosexual. "I think we can accept that a public, intentionally disturbing kind of speech may have to be proscribed," he said.

White House officials said they expected to get "an interim report" from Aspin this week on his recommendations, officially due July 15.

"It's just an update, nothing final" one senior official said. "They're not set in stone, and this is an area where little changes mean a lot."

For instance, the official said, there would be a difference between saying that homosexuality is inconsistent with military service, and saying that homosexual conduct is inconsistent.