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The Swamp: ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell:’ Congress asks

A House subcommittee Wednesday began examining whether gay men and women should be allowed to serve openly in the armed forces for the first time in15 years.

Congress had not reconsidered the controversial 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy since it was approved by former President Bill Clinton in 1993. Currently, recruitment officials are not allowed to ask enlistees about their sexual orientation and service personnel may not engage in homosexual conduct or aggressively display homosexuality.

At the 2½-hour hearing, lawmakers focused on two key questions: What effect a change in the policy would have on troop unity and whether the current policy is hurting recruitment and retention of service members who are gay.

Occasionally, the debate got heated, such as when Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness, which opposes gays in the military, suggested that allowing gays to openly serve in the military would increase the number of HIV-positive cases among service members. Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) called that contention "inappropriate" and said under that logic "you ought to recruit only lesbians to the military because they have the lowest incidence of HIV."

But the hearing mostly drew on the personal experience of openly gay former service members, retired sergeants and the head of a group that opposes allowing gays and lesbians to serve.

Capt. Joan Darrah, who served in the Navy for 30 years and won several commendations, spoke of the stress the policy caused her. Darrah had been at a meeting in the Pentagon just minutes before it was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. Seven of her colleagues were killed.

"The reality is that if I had been killed, my partner then of 11 years, would have been the last to know," she said. "I had not dared to list her in any of my paperwork."

She subsequently decided to retire a year early and said that she now discourages gay men and women from enlisting.

Donnelly contended that the "forced cohabitation" of straight and gay personnel would make military personnel uncomfortable and increase the incidence of sexual assaults.

"Do we want to have a sexualized atmosphere?" she asked.

She called the current policy an attempt by the "San Francisco left" to push its agenda through Congress.

Many Democratic leaders were particularly critical of Donnelly's testimony, asking her if she would have opposed the integration of black and white troops in the 1940s and arguing that her comments on sexual assaults were beside the point.

"We're talking about orientation, not misconduct," said Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.), who has served in the armed forces.

Army Sgt. Maj. Brian Jones, who opposes opening the military to openly gay men and women, said that he saw the proposal as a threat to military unity.

When he served in Somalia in 1993, he said he spent several months sleeping and showering in close quarters with almost 300 other men.

"Introduction of homosexual men under these conditions would create unnecessary tension and a potential for disruption that would be disastrous," he said.

But later in the hearing, Darrah disagreed, saying it was leaders' jobs to bring people of different genders, races, ethnicities and religions together.

"I pride myself in taking a diverse group of people and figuring out how to work together to accomplish a mission," she said.

Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama supports repeal of the current policy, while John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, supports retention of it.

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