WASHINGTON (AP) -- Gay rights leaders voiced surprise Wednesday when
they learned that President Clinton had nominated Army Gen. John
Shalikashvili to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Hours earlier, the advocates had held a news conference to denounce
another general they had believed was a front-runner for the job -Joseph
P. Hoar, head of U.S Central Command. "I don't know that much about
him," Tanya Domi, a former Army captain who is director of the Military
Freedom Project at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said of
Shalikashvili. "Right now, I'm relieved that it is not Hoar and we'll
have to take a wait-and-see attitude on Shalikashvili." Earlier
Wednesday, gay rights and feminist leaders objected to Hoar, who was
commander of the Parris Island, S.C., Training Depot in 1987 and 1988 --
a period when more than 200 Marines were investigated on allegations of
lesbianism. A total of 65 women were discharged and three were
imprisoned as a result. News reports had placed Hoar on a short list of
possible nominees to replace Gen. Colin Powell, who is retiring as
Joint Chiefs chairman Sept. 30. The gay and feminist leaders had
declined to suggest anyone they would find acceptable as Joint Chiefs
chairman. And they acknowledged that it would be virtually impossible
to find someone who had never had any involvement in discharging
homosexuals or alleged homosexuals from the military. Gregory King, a
spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign Fund, a gay lobby, said his
group had not "raised a red flag" on Shalikashvili's nomination. "We
look forward to hearing his views on issues such as the integration of
women and the end of witch hunts in the military," King said.