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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyFebruary 15th, 2010
The Reserve Officers Association of the United States (ROA) was founded in 1922 and granted a Congressional Charter in 1950 to “support and promote the development and execution of a military policy for the United States that will provide adequate National Security.” They are an advocacy group representing military officers.
Shortly after the 1993 battle over open service in the military, ROA passed the following resolution:
Resolution No. 07-26
Federal Law Regarding Homosexuals in the Armed ForcesWHEREAS, Title 10, United States Code, Section 654, establishes a policy whereby homosexuals are currently permitted to serve in the Armed Forces under the misguided concept of “Don’t ask; Don’t tell; Don’t pursue”;
WHEREAS, the law further states that, “Pursuant to the powers conferred by Section 8 of Article 1 of the Constitution of the United States, it lies within the discretion of Congress to establish qualifications of service in the armed forces.” and further that, “There is no constitutional right to serve in the armed forces”; and
WHEREAS, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, an Act of Congress, prohibits sodomy and other deviant behavior on the part of Armed Forces personnel, on duty, off duty, public or private, in uniform, and out of uniform, worldwide; and
WHEREAS, the special conditions and demands related to accomplishing military missions, especially in wartime, are uniquely distinct from the conditions which prevail in civilian society; and
WHEREAS, heterosexual Armed Forces personnel experience significant stress when forced to associate with known homosexuals in close quarters, lacking privacy, and during life and death situations; and
WHEREAS, the presence of homosexual personnel in the Armed Forces has been found to be detrimental to good order, morale, discipline, esprit de corps, recruiting, and retention, which are at the core of combat effectiveness; and
WHEREAS, service in the Armed Forces is a unique calling, entered into by those who meet and maintain stringent physical and mental requirements; and
WHEREAS, discrimination related to deviant behavior, sexual preference, and aberrant lifestyle must not be confused or equated with that based on gender, race, or religion; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Reserve Officers Association of the United States, chartered by Congress, urge the Congress to exclude homosexuals from induction, enlistment, commissioning, and continued service in the Armed Forces of the United States.
In other words, this group not only opposed service by gay personnel willing to serve in silence, they endorsed bold and blatant anti-gay discrimination in terms selected to indicate contempt and disdain. This position was renewed during National Conventions on June 12, 2004 and June 30, 2007.
However, as of last Wednesday, the ROA no longer sees same-sex attracted people as deviant homosexuals with aberrant lifestyles that cause stress and are detrimental to good order. Now they are gays and lesbians serving in the U.S. military, and this endorsement of discrimination has been jettisoned.
From the ROA press release.
Members of the Reserve Officers Association of the United States voted Wednesday to rescind its previous call for complete exclusion of gays and lesbians serving in the U.S. military.
The association also rejected by a two-thirds vote a proposal to endorse the current Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) law, which allows gays and lesbians to serve, provided they keep silent about their sexual orientation.
Leaders were careful to note that they have not endorsed President Obama’s efforts to repeal the ban. They simply will take no position and cannot be used as a source by opponents of open gay service.
This decision is monumental. These include the “officers in the field” to whom Republicans claim to be deferring on this issue. This 63,000 member organization speaks not for the Pentagon, but for “all federally commissioned officers and warrant officers, and their spouses” with a special emphasis on the men and women in the Reserve Components, many of whom are now serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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GTI
February 15th, 2010
Their 1993 statement is repugnant, contemptible, and inexcusable. Ugh.
And 1993 wasn’t that long ago.
N.V.B
February 15th, 2010
I read the sentence ‘heterosexual Armed Forces personnel experience significant stress when forced to associate with known homosexuals in close quarters’ and thought ‘now if we change the position of heterosexual and homosexual in that sentence …’
DADT is ridiculous to begin with. It seems that ROA has come to that conclusion too. : )
Amicus
February 16th, 2010
Wow, let’s see the opponents paint that as “hollywood history”, as they have done to Adm. Mullen.
Ben in Oakland
February 16th, 2010
Sent to the Chronicle. Probably won’t be published.
The military wants more studies on repealing Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell, and that repeal is years away. They’ve had seventeen years to study it. They have the experience of our allies that openly gay and lesbian soldiers serve well alongside heterosexual soldiers, posing no threat to morale or discipline. What else needs to be studied?
And then we find they want to avoid a theoretical backlash, including violence, though they believe that this could be contained with standard discipline.
So who exactly is the threat to unit cohesion and good order? The soldiers that want to serve their country honorably, without the constant threat of being thrown out, or the soldiers who are so homophobic that they would ignore discipline, trash unit cohesion, and commit violence against their fellow soldiers. They get to stay, and the gay soldiers go?
This whole “rationale” underlines that this has never been about the ability of gay people to serve well and honorably, but about the prejudice of some heterosexuals, given a thin veneer of respectability by concerns about “unit cohesion”.
Gay soldiers are already serving alongside their compatriots. Let them do so openly, and now. I’m sure the best military in the world can handle it.
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