From: [email-masked] (Darren Geimausaddle)
Date: Mon, 4 Jul 1994 09:50:43 -0500

ACLU * ACLU * ACLU * ACLU * ACLU * ACLU * ACLU * ACLU * ACLU
 NEWS RELEASE * NEWS RELEASE * NEWS RELEASE * NEWS RELEASE 

First Legal Test Filed Against New Law, Regulations on Gays in Military;
Court Schedules Hearing on Preliminary Injunction For Next Week

For IMMEDIATE RELEASE           
Monday, March 7, 1994

     NEW YORK -- Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and the American
Civil Liberties Union today filed suit in federal district court in
Brooklyn, challenging the recently enacted federal law and Department of
Defense regulations excluding lesbians and gay men from serving in the
U.S. Armed Forces. 

     The lawsuit, Able v. USA, was filed on behalf of six servicemembers,
ranging from a lieutenant colonel to a petty officer and includes two
active-duty service members who live in the federal judicial district
covered by the court in Brooklyn. All of the plaintiffs wish to continue
to serve their country, without fear of investigation or discharge based
on their sexual orientation. 

     In filing the claim today, Lambda and the ACLU seek to have both the
new law and the final Department of Defense regulations, which were issued
last week, found unconstitutional. (An earlier Lambda-ACLU case filed
against the so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was withdrawn last
Fall after Congress passed its law superseding President Clinton's
policy.)

     "The central promise of our Constitution is that all Americans are
guaranteed the right to be treated equally under the law; to be judged on
the basis of their abilities rather than according to the prejudice of
others," said William B. Rubenstein, Director of the ACLU's national
Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. "Our goal is to force the government to
safeguard that principle for lesbian and gay Americans." 

     Beatrice Dohrn, Legal Director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education
Fund, said: "Contrary to the government's characterizations, the new law
and policy subject lesbians and gay service members to a system of rules
under which they are punished for who they are. This in itself is
antithetical to our Constitution." 

     This morning -- after receiving assurances from the Justice
Department that no action would be taken against the plaintiffs in the
case -- Federal Judge Eugene Nickerson determined that a temporary
restraining order against the government was not necessary. Judge
Nickerson scheduled a hearing on the plaintiffs' request that a
preliminary injunction be issued against the government for Friday, March
18. 

     In papers filed with the Court today, the ACLU and Lambda say that
the statute and regulations create a system under which all lesbian and
gay service members are not judged on their fitness and ability to serve
their country but instead are subject to discharge or denied entrance
because of the perceived prejudices of others. 

     The organizations argue that the statute and regulations violate the
Constitution's Equal Protection Clause because they punish lesbian and gay
servicemembers for engaging in speech or behavior that is otherwise
completely permissible for heterosexual servicemembers. This distinction
serves no legitimate and rational government or military interest, the
plaintiffs claim, but is based solely on the prejudices and presumed
prejudices of heterosexual service members and civilians. 

     The papers argue further that the statute and regulations "burden,
chill and circumscribe" all public and private speech that would tend to
identify service members as lesbians or gay men in violation of the First
Amendment. Similarly, the papers argue that the Act and regulations hinder
the rights of gay and lesbian service members to expressive and intimate
association. 
                            --endit--
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