Who’s Asking?
The military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is on a collision course with itself, and the newly issued guidelines will only serve to accelerate the crash course, not avoid it.
The Pentagon recently announced additional guidelines to the nowinfamous “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about gays and lesbians in the military. The additional rules included ordering commanders to get the goahead from senior civilian officials before they commence scrutinizing soldiers who are known to be gay. And military lawyers were also ordered to check in with their superiors before initiating investigations on soldiers suspected to be gay or lesbian.
But what’s getting the most attention and what will eventually prove to help push the pedal to the medal in terms of forcing a crackup of the convoluted “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is the requirement that soldiers now take antiharassment training.
The call for antiharassment training comes as the Army investigates the July 5 beating death of a gay soldier at Fort Campbell. Private first class Barry Winchell, a 21yearold soldier from Kansas City, Mo., was allegedly killed by an 18yearold batswinging soldier, Pfc. Calvin Glover. Another soldier, 25yearold Justin Fisher, is accused of encouraging Glover to swing the blows that caused Winchell’s death.
Winchell was reportedly gay, and his sexual orientation was said to be known by his fellow soldiers. It was allegedly a source of much harassment for Winchell, and is believed to factor heavily in the motive for his murder.
With the uncomfortable backdrop of murder in the ranks, the powersthatbe and the architects of “don’t ask, don’t tell” have come up with the windowdressing of antiharassment training as a way to try to convince Americans that the new rules promise a kinder, gentler treatment of gays in the military.
Of course, it’s all hogwash, just as the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy itself is. From the beginning, “don’t ask, don’t tell” was not only intellectually and ideologically unsound, it proved to be worse on a practical level for gay and lesbian soldiers, too. Gay and lesbian activist groups report that expulsions of gay and lesbian soldiers has increased not decreased under “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
And now, the new rule about harassment is supposed to win the officiating homophobes accolades? Hardly. It simply highlights the incredible hypocrisy of the antigay sentiments among those who run the military establishment. But discontent among gay and lesbian activists with military rules have generally meant little. What is different about this edict is that it is bound to ruffle the ranks who are getting such mixed messages from the higherups. And that may eventually be the real demise of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Of course, harassment of gay and lesbian soldiers is a serious issue, and must be addressed. But it is questionable whether the new rules will have any real effect on harassment in the ranks.
The reason is that the new rules, particularly coming with the backdrop of Pfc. Barry Winchell’s death, appear to be politically motivated lip service. And the thinness of the conviction behind them is apparent, especially to those who serve in the military.
On the one hand, the military issues “don’t ask, don’t tell,” but pursues investigations of soldiers’ sexual orientation, and their subsequent dismissal, at the highest rates ever.
Military leaders publicly go on the warpath against gays and lesbians in the military, allbut salivating as they pound their fists over morale and “unit cohesiveness” and the everpresent danger of getting peeked at in the shower. In the military (as in many organizations) messages of right and wrong, of acceptable and unacceptable, of what the group stands for and what it opposes, is a topdown structure. Whether the commanders who run the military admit it or not, the military’s actions to date have sent a clear message to the soldiers: Homos are horrible, and you must fear them and despise them and not tolerate them amongst you. And we will do what we can to expunge them from this club.
Is it any wonder, then, that a murder like that of Pfc. Barry Winchell’s could happen in the army?
But now, the military is sending a mixed message to its rank. In effect, it is saying “We hate queers. We don’t want them in our ranks. We will still do what we can to get rid of them. But you have to be nice to them.”
The hypocrisy of the antiharassment edict will hit many young soldiers the way it hit one young man, a heterosexual, who was interviewed the day the new policy was announced. The 23yearold enlisted man quite rightly asked the definition of harassment. Aren’t surprise searches of barracks and soldiers’ belongings (a common tactic used by the military in investigations against men and women suspected of being gay or lesbian) a form of harassment? he asked.
Beatings and murders of gay men and lesbians by fellow soldiers are horrible, despicable acts, that must not be tolerated or brushed aside.
But far more lives are ruined by investigations and expulsions than batswinging attacks. Military leaders will have little ground to preach, practice or enforce antigay harassment in the ranks until they stop their own version of antigay harassment that is embodied in “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Email Mubarakdah@aol.com.
Copyright © 1999 Lambda Publications Inc. All rights reserved. Lambda publishes Outlines, The Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community, Nightlines, Out Resource Guide, Clout! Business Report, Blacklines and En La Vida. 1115 W. Belmont 2D, Chicago, IL 60657; PH (773) 871-7610; FAX (773) 871-7609. Web at www.suba.com/~outlines/. E-mail feedback to outlines@suba.com!