From JULIE@DRYCAS.CLUB.CC.CMU.EDU Wed Jun 8 23:11:51 1994 Received: from indst.indstate.edu by vector.casti.com (NX5.67d/5.931230) id AA14180; Wed, 8 Jun 94 23:11:51 -0400 Received: from amber.indstate.edu by indst.indstate.edu (IBM VM SMTP R1.2.2MX) with TCP; Wed, 08 Jun 94 22:12:48 EST Received: from AMBER/MERCURY by amber.indstate.edu (Mercury 1.11); Wed, 8 Jun 94 22:10:31 GMT-5 Received: from MERCURY by AMBER (Mercury 1.11); Wed, 8 Jun 94 22:09:56 GMT-5 Resent-From: "Thomas W. Holt Jr." Resent-To: QRD@vector.casti.com Resent-Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 22:09:51 EST Received: from MERCURY by AMBER (Mercury 1.11); Wed, 8 Jun 94 22:06:47 GMT-5 Received: from BROWNVM.brown.edu by amber.indstate.edu (Mercury 1.11); Wed, 8 Jun 94 22:06:38 GMT-5 Received: from BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU by BROWNVM.brown.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 9149; Wed, 08 Jun 94 22:32:57 EDT Received: from BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@BROWNVM) by BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU (LMail V1.1d/1.7f) with BSMTP id 9397; Wed, 8 Jun 1994 22:32:55 -0400 Date: Wed, 8 Jun 1994 22:36:00 EDT Reply-To: Song Weaver Sender: Information Repository for News of Interest to GLB* Folk From: Song Weaver Subject: MILITARY INS AND OUTS X-To: glb-news@brownvm.brown.edu To: Multiple recipients of list GLB-NEWS X-Pmflags: 33554560 Message-Id: <23EF3480D54@amber.indstate.edu> JUSTICE MILITARY INS AND OUTS The Pentagon ponders its options after a court orders the reinstatement of a gay National Guard colonel BY DAVID VAN BIEMA Some would suggest it was a silly question to bother her with, at this stage in a brilliant career; a little like pestering a star athlete who has led his team to a brace of championships about his religious preference. National Guard Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer had earned a Bronze Star for supervising a hospital during the Vietnam War; in 1985 the Veterans Administration named her Nurse of the Year over 34,000 other candidates; and most recently, she had served as chief nurse of the Washington National Guard. But somebody's curiosity got the better of him: during a security clearance in 1989 for her admission to the Army War College, Cammermeyer was quizzed about her sexual preference. And so she answered: she is gay. Her subsequent discharge from the armed forces in 1992 attracted headlines around the country and eventually helped persuade the Clinton Administration to change its policy on gays in the military last year. At the time, her superiors fought her ouster; on the day of her departure, her commanding officer wept. And last week Federal District Judge Thomas S. Zilly ordered her reinstated. The judge, a Reagan appointee, explained that the old military policy was "based on heterosexual members' fear and dislike of homosexuals." Given the Constitution's equal-protection clause, Zilly continued, such feelings "are . . . impermissible bases for governmental policies." Said a jubilant Cammermeyer: "This is what we've been waiting for. We won!" The battle, if not the war. Zilly's decision was the seventh lower-court ruling against the old military rules on homosexuality; and, like several of the other decisions, it has implications for the new regulations negotiated by Bill Clinton and Senator Sam Nunn last summer. The events that led to Cammermeyer's discharge might not have occurred under the new "don't ask, don't tell" policy, since she might never have been asked. But her answer would break the new as well as the old regulations. The current policy holds that although homosexual "status" is theoretically permissible, admitting to it signals an impermissible intent to engage in homosexual "conduct." Judge Zilly's ruling heartened gay-rights activists. "Change in this policy is inevitable," said Joseph Steffan, whose 1987 expulsion from the U.S. Naval Academy on similar grounds was overturned by an appeals court late last year. "The only question is when, and decisions like this lead to the conclusion that it may be sooner rather than later." The military itself seems torn about whether to appeal the Cammermeyer verdict. "We have to press ahead," said one official. "If we let this decision stand . . . we'd be barred from enforcing our own policy." Yet Pentagon spokesman Dennis Boxx was more cautious. "We disagree with the judge's conclusions in the Cammermeyer case," he said, but "we need to look very hard -- along with the Justice Department -- to see how far we want to pursue that disagreement." The hidden reference in that statement was doubtless to the Supreme Court, which is expected to encounter several appeals-court rulings on both the old and new rules on military homosexuality in the next few years. Which case it chooses to hear and how it rules may well be the final word on the topic for some time. Until then, admits Tanya Domi, a retired Army captain who is now legislative director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task force, "we're stuck. You have to continue to hide and lie." Reported by Ellis E. Conklin/Seattle and Mark Thompson/Washington Copyright 1994 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Transmitted: 94-06-05 12:05:06 EDT