Bay Windows - National News, March 18, 1999
Peter Cassels, Bay Windows corrrespondent

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), a national gay rights group, counted 400 cases of anti-gay harassment in the military last year, including death threats, compared with 182 violations in 1997, a 120 percent increase.

The report cites 511 incidents, including a number of the 400 harassed, in which service members said they were asked about their sexual orientation and their cases were pursued by military investigators or commanders until they quit or were dismissed. In 1997, there were 359 such cases.

The military isn't supposed to investigate sexual orientation unless "credible evidence" surfaces about a person's homosexuality. Proof that someone is gay or professes to be gay is grounds for automatic discharge.

In January, the Pentagon reported a total of 1,145 gay discharges from all service branches last year. In 1997, the number was 997, at the time the highest since 1987. Military officials said many were recruits intent on leaving anyway. However, a Pentagon report last April concluded, "the reasons for this increase are not known and would be difficult to ascertain."

The statistics come when the military is having problems recruiting and retaining staff. It's offering incentives to try to compete with higher salaries in the private sector and the Air Force recently launched a TV advertising campaign for the first time. There is evidence that heterosexuals are declaring themselves gay so they can receive early discharges.

Dixon Osburn, SLDN co-executive director, said the cases his group documented show why gays and lesbians are leaving: "The service members are forced between hiding under this blanket of fear and anxiety from harassment every day or coming out and being fired for who they are."

The SLDN maintains it isn't arguing for a "zero discharge" policy, because Congress, the Clinton administration and the Supreme Court aren't going to reverse the law any time soon. Instead, the group advocates commanders enforcing the rules designed to protect the privacy of service members and limiting investigations into their lives.

While the Pentagon declined comment on the SLDN figures, Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said March 16 that while he had not seen the report, he has not changed his view that "don't ask, don't tell" should be continued. Asked if he would support the policy if he were still the nation's top military commander, he stuck to his guns: "Yes, just as the current chairman [Army Gen. Henry Shelton] does. There's been no change in the thinking among the military about that."

Powell was interviewed in Providence, where he was promoting his America's Promise project, which mobilizes society's various sectors to build and strengthen the character of the nation's youth. Although he rarely grants interviews, and then only to discuss the public service program, he answered Bay Windows questions about gays in the military as he left an event for inner-city youths at the city's convention center. Later he addressed the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce's annual Business Expo.

He met with members of Youth for Action, a local group performing community service. Giving them a mixed message, Powell answered one question about how youths should deal with advice from parents and other adults by saying, "You ultimately have to satisfy yourself."

He said when he was an inner-city youth, he drew inspiration from "people living a good life, people who have good character." Powell cited marriage as the center of society: "For those of you who don't marry, it doesn't mean you can't have a life, but it's nice to have a partner, children and grandchildren."

Ironically, one of the young people he met is openly gay. After a skit the group presented on the importance of abstinence from sex to avoid contracting HIV, Luis Pagan, 15, a youth coordinator with group, told the general he admires him and that "I'm in every risk group for AIDS, including sexual orientation." Later, Pagan asked Powell to be a Youth for Action adviser.

A student at Classical High School, where he is president of its gay/straight alliance, Pagan was asked by Bay Windows how he equates his admiration for Powell with his apparent homophobia.

"I run into a lot of homophobic people," he explained. "I try to understand that they have their own views. Although they can't accept me, I as a gay person accept them. So, although he might have those views, I still look at him as a great man because of his positive aspects. I try to focus on the high points, just as I hope people look at my high points and not just at the fact that I'm gay. Rather, look at the things I do first and my sexual orientation second."
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