Howdy. I'm trying this again. Mark Stahl was wonderful enough to reformat this and so I'm resending it. It's so much more readable this time! (Thanks Mark!) - --- From mes%scutum.ece.cmu.edu Fri Apr 10 14:30:29 1992 Received: from NMSU.Edu (opus) by dante (4.1/NMSU) id AA07438; Fri, 10 Apr 92 14:30:12 MDT Received: from scutum.ece.cmu.edu by NMSU.Edu (4.1/NMSU-1.18) id AA22440; Fri, 10 Apr 92 14:30:08 MDT Received: by scutum.ece.cmu.edu (5.54-ECE2/5.17) id AA10964; Fri, 10 Apr 92 16:30:15 EDT Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 16:30:15 EDT From: Mark Edward Stahl Message-Id: <9204102030.AA10964@scutum.ece.cmu.edu> To: awerling%nmsu.edu Subject: Re: rotc story Status: R Thanks for the offer to mail me a copy of your article, but I no longer need it. I grabbed a copy of your article from the Internet BBoard. I reformatted what I could, so here's a copy that should make things easier to distribute. Feel free to contact me if you need help on distributing this through email. I'd be glad to help. I can only assume that the complete story survived the trip over the net. If anything is missing, could you please mail me an updated copy. Just so you are aware, point 6 was ommitted from the list of DoD rationals. Also, you might want to edit the article to include the title, date published, and where published so others can reference it easier. Hope this helps you out. Good article. - mark stahl - -------------- Include: REFORMATTED ROTC STORY ------------------- Here's a copy of the ROTC story I wrote for THE PHOENIX, the magazine at New Mexico State University. "As of January 16, 1981, the Pentagon has seven, official, articulated reasons for banning gays: "The presence of such members adversely affects the ability of the armed forces [1] to maintain discipline, good order and morale, [2] to foster mutual trust and confidence among servicemembers, [3] to insure the integrity of the system of rank and command, [4] to facilitate assignment and worldwide deployment of servicemembers who frequently must live and work under close conditions affording minimal privacy, [5] to recruit and maintain members of the armed forces, and [7] to prevent breaches of security." (as provided in a gay and lesbian-related computer digest by Ed Lisowki, as quoted from GAY/JUSTICE, by Richard Mohr.) The policy that forbids homosexuals from joining the military encompasses all areas of the military. This includes campus ROTC's across the country, and NMSU ROTC department head, Colonel Michael Clark, expressed the importance of the fact that it is not a specifically ROTC policy. He says it comes straight from the office of the Departmend of Defense (DoD). A gay NMSU student, who wishes to remain anonymous, recently spent eight years in active duty in the navy, and the DoD policy is the exact reason he is no longer in the military. "I was out to some really close friends," he says about life on a navy ship. "There was a group of family members (homosexuals of either gender) on the ship. Everything was cool. It was very secretive. There were at least seven members who were high-ranking officers. It was like a big closet. "When we worked we did our jobs; we were very respected for our work, although nobody knew (that we were gay). We had to follow rules because we were so scared of one getting caught, getting scared and spilling the beans on all of us." That's what happened to him, however. He lied about his sexuality in order to get security clearance required for commission, and someone, indeed, "spilled the beans." He was given two options; either admit his homosexuality and receive an honorable discharge, or get court marshalled, and if he was found guilty, receive a dishonorable discharge. "By this time I was fed up with hiding," he says. "I went ahead and admitted to it. I was discharged honorably a month later. I have full V.A. benefits and all that." He was a 4.0 sailor. "The doctors I worked with were very cool about it. The supported 100% my decision. Even to this day I still keep in contact with them. "If there's any changes in statues in the military after I get my degree (at NMSU) I could say I would join the active reserves. I really enjoy the navy. They got a lot out of me; I really can't say anything bad about it. Right now they're cutting down on military force and finding different means of cutting down." He doesn't agree with the stated reasons for banning homosexuals. "Security risk is not a threat because we're open now," he says. "I feel it's very discriminatory. There were 1500 personnel on that ship, and around 125 were family, and that's semi-openly. I'm sure there were more who were very closeted. We all worked great together; we were all there on a mission and we all pulled together and did jobs great." The close-quarters of the military did not pose a problem for him either. "I lived with 160 personnel in one bearthing compartment. It was all pure respect. I'm gay and if there was another person looking at me with his tongue hanging out I would be very offended." Nor was respect and discipline a problem "On the ship, I was out with this commander. If he gave me an order I'd do it. This was for respect for the chain of command. There were 250 women on board, including officers. A lot of people looked down on that, but still it was respected." Another homosexual, who was required to go through two years of ROTC when he went to school, agrees that the military is full of homosexuals. "I work for the army as a civilian and lived in Germany," he says. "The German gay bars were full of American GI's. Also, bars near American bases are full of GI's." Colonel Clark feels that because this is a DoD policy, national representative are the people to express complaints to. "If there are folks who feel strongly about the DoD policy, NMSU ROTC can't change the policy. It does very little to argue with this department. The best thing to do is to call your congressional delegation." Another thing to do, and what people have been doing across the country, is to deal directly with one's own university. A sociology professor at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, says it was as easy as writing a recommendation and passing it at a faculty meeting. "Since we already had a non-discrimination clause," he says, "we passed it under those conditions. Make sure your campus includes sexual orientation in its non-discrimination statement, then use the statement to argue against ROTC." The Pitzer decision has the effect of allowing nobody enrolled as an official student of Pitzer to earn credit in ROTC courses. It's an odd case, though, because the Claremont facilities house many different colleges, and Pitzer is the only one affected by the decision. At Chico State last May a similar Facutly Senate resolution was passed. As reported by David Welton in CENTERSTONE, the newsmagazine of the Stonewall Alliance of Chico, there are three parts to the resolution: "eliminate ROTC credit for ROTC courses;...exclude advertisements, notices, listings and references to...the ROTC program;...and withdraw faculty status from ROTC instructors." The Resolution was implemented by Chico State President Robin Wilson, and the policy will take effect Fall 1993, to allow current students to finish their course of the program and continue earning credit for their coursework. At the University of Kansas, the University Council (a governing body comprised both of faculty members and students) passed a somewhat unusual resolution, which, according to a high-up UK official, "would require all ROTC cadets and instructors to undergo sensitivity training regarding gays and lesbians." The rationale is that "the policy will change eventually, so start getting the military ready now." At Carnegie Mellon University, the non-discrimination policy has included sexual orientation since 1988. A contact at the university says that, "At CMU, ROTC is a financial aid program, not an academic program." Students who join ROTC receive some money to help with college expenses. The contact relates the following story: "Last January, a freshman midshipman was outted to his commanding officer by a friend that he confided in. The student's scholarship was frozen, and he was not allowed to attend ROTC activities (such as the summer cruise required of all Navy ROTC students). The commander of Navy ROTC requested that the student get a psychiatric evaluation to prove he was gay, and then would be permitted to disenroll. The student contacted the gay/lesbian/bisexual group on campus, which put him in touch with a lawyer on the faculty. In September, the student was permitted to disenroll without having to undergo the psychiatric evaluation. "The October issue of FOCUS, the faculty and staff newspaper, printed an article on this story, after which the student senate passed a resolution forbidding ROTC as an organization to participate in any student-funded activity, such as CMU's spring carnival." All of these options are possible, though none have been attempted yet. According to Colonel Clark, nobody has expressed a problem with the policy to him or any one who currently works in the ROTC department. "The military science curriculum is open to anyone enrolled in the university," he says. "When a student reaches their junior year, they have an option. They can come and ask to contract with the U.S. Army. I cannot contract anybody who says they are homosexual into advanced courses. They can take the courses for universtiy credit as free electives, but we can't let them wear the army uniform. We can't contract them because we can't commission them." A bisexual woman who used to be enrolled in ROTC says that "women in the military, especially the navy, are expected to get pregnant immediately or be considered dykes. They get harrassed until they prove otherwise by getting pregnant. The men in the military MUST prove their manhood. They feel threatened by homosexuals and women, so they retaliate in shame." The policy as it stands creates problems in minds of those considering enrollment in ROTC. One woman says that "homosexuals should be in the military and be openly homosexual, not in the closet. I'll support the military if it will support me." - ----- Andrew Werling awerling@nmsu.edu - ---