Ex- Joint Chiefs Chairman Rightly Says Military Ready For Open Gays

While serving in Iraq and Korea during his five-year Army career, Spc. Patrick English came out to about 50 fellow soldiers.

The enlisted man never had a problem, even in group showers — which are increasingly uncommon — with heterosexual military men who knew he was gay.

"The people I served with and went to combat with, we grew close. They know if you are hiding something," recalls the intelligence and Korean-language specialist, now 24. "I decided to be honest. And every time I came out, I was always met with support.

"In this generation, most people already know someone gay. They just care about how you do your job."

English's message: Gays can serve openly without endangering themselves or their unit's effectiveness. A year ago, English told his story to someone extraordinary — and something extraordinary happened.

Hearing it helped turn retired four-star Gen. John Shalikashvili, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1993-97 was the nation's high-ranking officer, into an advocate of ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

On Jan. 2, just hours after Shalikashvili (pronounced shah-lee-kash-vee-lee) called for the law's repeal, former Defense Secretary William Cohen, a Republican on whose watch DADT unfolded, said "it's time to start thinking" about ending "a policy of discrimination." Cohen is the first defense secretary to call for reconsideration.

English and four other gays who've served openly — two soldiers, a Marine and a Navy submariner — met in late 2005 at Shalikashvili's Washington state home. In a recent column in The New York Times, the general, who oversaw implementation of Don't Ask, credited that meeting with helping his views evolve:

"I now believe that if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces.

Our military has been stretched thin by our deployments in the Middle East, and we must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job."

Calling DADT a "useful speed bump," the general noted that foreign militaries have successfully let open gays serve and that a new Zogby poll shows troops are comfortable with gay people.

The eye-popping Zogby poll of more than 545 troops with experience in Iraq or Afghanistan shows that the fears that led to DADT — unit cohesion, morale, privacy, recruitment and harassment of gays — are being put to rest.

Nearly one in four (23 percent) knew "for certain" someone in their unit was gay; 73 percent feel comfortable around gays; just 3 percent said they would "definitely not" have enlisted if gays served openly; and only 3 percent said they "always or almost always" take group showers.

But even as attitudes change, the military continues losing talented gay careerists. English loved the military, yet at the end of 2005 opted not to re-enlist because of the ever-present possibility of being booted out for being gay.

The 1993 law has led to more than 10,000 gays, including Arabic linguists, being kicked out and kept countless others from serving.

Although rightly preoccupied with Iraq, political and military leaders should remain "open to the eventual and inevitable lifting of the ban," Shalikashvili urges.

Hearings on the military reasons for lifting the ban would be a measured but important start. Is Congress ready to listen?

Deb Price of The Detroit News writes the first nationally syndicated column on gay issues. To find out more about Deb Price and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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