Clinton Walks into A Brawl over Gays

IT WAS A MINOR CAMPAIGN PROMISE, YET THE ISSUE of allowing homosexuals into the military ignited the first passionate fight of the Clinton Administration. In an interim compromise, Bill Clinton on Friday ordered that recruiting officers stop asking volunteers if they are gay and that the services suspend discharge proceedings against homosexuals who have committed no offenses of conduct. However, commanders can still force gays to be transferred out of their units, and homosexuals about to be discharged anyway will be suspended from active duty. The President gave Secretary of Defense Les Aspin a July 15 deadline to draft an Executive Order formally lifting the ban and spelling out a detailed policy for doing so. Clinton pledged to enforce "rigorous standards regarding sexual conduct" that presumably would not allow a gay soldier to solicit sex from a straight one.

That probably only postpones the big fight. Congressional Democrats may well turn aside a Republican effort expected this week to write the ban on gay soldiers and sailors into law. While a permanent order is being drawn up, though, the White House faces intense opposition from Pentagon brass, who deeply fear disrupting the closely knit culture of the armed services, and constituents who have been deluging Congress with mail and phone calls. The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold extensive hearings; chairman Sam Nunn helped negotiate the interim compromise but announced that he still favors keeping the ban. On Thursday Los Angeles Federal District Judge Terry Hatter ruled that excluding homosexuals from military service "in the absence of sexual conduct which interferes with the military mission" is unconstitutional. So even if Congress eventually reverses an Executive Order allowing gays in the military and then musters the two-thirds majority necessary to override a Clinton veto, its action would surely face a constitutional challenge in the courts. (See related stories beginning on page 26.)

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CAPTION: GAYS IN ARMED SERVICES