FRC: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT THROWS FIRST COURT TEST OF MILITARY HOMOSEXUAL CASE

WASHINGTON, March 17, 1995 -- "The Justice Department appears to be throwing a 
key military homosexual case by not calling expert witnesses to rebut the 
half-truths presented by pro-homosexual witnesses," Family Research Council 
military analyst Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis said on Friday.

Col. Maginnis calls for the 104th Congress to demand that the Justice 
Department represent the military's interests.  He said, "The evidence 
supports the military homosexual law, but if the government is silent about 
the facts, cases like this will be lost, and the destruction of military 
morale will proceed unchecked."

Maginnis explained:  "This week a Brooklyn federal district court heard the 
arguments in the case of Abel et al. v. William Perry.  This is the first 
federal case challenging the military's new homosexual law. The Lambda Legal 
Defense and Education Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union, which 
represented the six avowed homosexuals, presented `expert' witnesses, the 
Justice Department failed to refute the testimony with pro-law experts."

Maginnis continued:  "One of the witnesses was former Assistant Secretary of 
Defense Lawrence Korb, a scholar at the Brookings Institute, who is an 
apologist for homosexual causes.  He frequently relies on two debunked studies 
as evidence and distorts the facts concerning the character of homosexual 
service."

"Congress needs to defend the integrity of our Armed Forces by protecting the 
law that was demanded by the American people and which took effect only last 
year," Maginnis said.

For more information on the Abel case contact the FRC media office.

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/CONTACT:  Kristi Hamrick or Kristin Hansen (radio interviews), 202-393-2100, 
both of the Family Research Council