THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 1996 TAG: 9607020291
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 56 lines
A former Navy officer forced to leave the service after telling others he is gay filed a Supreme Court appeal Monday, the first challenge of the Clinton administration's ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy to reach the nation's highest court.
Lawyers for former Lt. Paul Thomasson contend, among other things, that the government's policy violates homosexuals' free-speech rights and ``irrationally discriminates against homosexual service members.''
A federal appeals court voted 9-4 last April to uphold the policy.
The Supreme Court ended its 1995-96 term hours before Thomasson's appeal was filed and the justices are not expected to say until October whether they will review the appeals court ruling.
Clinton's policy was a compromise that resulted from congressional repudiation of his pledge to lift the longstanding ban on gays in the military. It was intended to let gays serve as long as they kept their sexuality private.
Thomasson, who lives in the District of Columbia, had worked for the admiral administering the ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy. He was forced to leave the Navy last year after submitting a letter to his commander stating, ``I am gay.''
Thomasson's appeal urged his case be used to decide ``whether the government may restrict the freedom of an accomplished and dedicated military officer to utter a fundamental statement about who he is, solely on the basis of anticipated discomfort of others, and thereby strip him of the ability to dispel the stereotypes and combat the prejudices from which he and others similarly situated routinely suffer.''
In rejecting Thomasson's challenge in April, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said elected leaders, not the courts, should set military policy.
``Any argument that Congress was misguided. . . is one of legislative policy, not constitutional law,'' the appeals court ruled.
Similar challenges to the government policy are in several other federal appeals courts.
Commenting on Thomasson's appeal, C. Dixon Osburn of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a gay-rights advocacy group, said, ``We are optimistic about a victory.''
He noted the court's May decision that struck down a Colorado constitutional amendment that would have made anti-gay discrimination in employment, housing or public accommodations immune from legal challenge.
Osburn called the ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy ``a clearer example of discrimination than the Colorado case.'' ILLUSTRATION: It will likely be October before justices decide
whether to hear ex-Navy Lt. Paul Thomasson's case against the
military's policy on gays.
KEYWORDS: NAVY GAYS IN THE MILITARY by CNB