Poll on Gays in the Military

Your poll of military enlistees claims a complete breakdown of discipline will occur if open lesbians and gay men are admitted to the ranks. That claim cannot be accepted. In America, the military simply must submit to civilian authority. In this country, the commander in chief orders and the military obeys. At the height of the Vietnam War, the most controversial war in this century, there was never any doubt that troops would follow orders. Now, the Times poll claims that times have changed. If the poll results are believed, the joint chiefs of staff--for the first time in this nation’s history--do not have full control over enlistees in the armed forces. Still another possibility remains: There is something fundamentally wrong with the poll. At least one key question seems to offer insubordination and criminal acts as understandable alternatives: “If the ban is lifted, how likely is it that homosexuals will be subjected to violence from others in the service?” Imagine if the following question were posed, “How likely is it that women will be subjected to violence from others in the service?” The question is absurd. Not long ago, 22-year-old gay Seaman Allen Schindler was murdered in Sasebo, Japan, allegedly by his shipmates. Perhaps the pollster was thinking about Schindler when the survey was created, how the Navy failed to protect him, and then mishandled the prosecution of his case. Sailors who have stepped forward with information about Schindler’s killing are even now being harassed, according to reports in The Times. It appears the pollster may have concluded from Schindler’s murder that lesbians and gay men are somehow responsible for the violence against them. Such “logic” is misguided. SANDY BODNER Press Relations, GLAAD/LA Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation