New Study Adds Further Support To Case For Allowing Gays And Lesbians To Serve Openly In The Army
Posted: 10th Nov 2009 Author: Michelle Penny Topics: News
The Boston Globe reports that the Obama administration yesterday obtained further research findings in support of it’s quest to allow gays and lesbians to able to serve openly within the armed forces.
Commissioned by the Palm Center at the University of California at Santa Barbara, who are in support of lifting the ban, the findings add further doubt to the belief that military discipline would fall apart if gays and lesbians served openly, instead pointing to issues of unit cohesion, readiness and the quality of the officers, training, and equipment as being fundamental to a strong unit.
Laura Miller, a military sociologist at the private research group, RAND Corporation, who conducted the study alongside the University of Florida, also highlighted how the findings shower “serving with another service member who was gay or lesbian was not a significant factor that affected unit cohesion or readiness to fight”, with 40% of military members supporting the current Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, 28% opposing and 33% being neutral - numbers sees a marked drop in the support for the current policy from that of previous studies.
Also indicating that around 20% of those interviewed say they knew there was a gay or lesbian in their unit, the study discovered that about half of these appeared to be publicly open about their sexuality, and that three quarters of the forces interviewed said they either comfortable or very comfortable to have gays and lesbians in their units.
Appearing in the journal Armed Forces and Society, this study found similar findings across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines, and backs up an article by an Air Force colonel in a journal for the Joint Chiefs of Staff which argues that by leaving the current 1993 ban in place the US is forcing gay and lesbian soldiers to live a lie, something which undermines the values of honor and integrity that are at the core of the armed services.
President Obama did vow, as part of his Presidential campaign, to push Congress to repeal the ban on gays, however so far there has been no lobbying of lawmakers to take action, and whilst a bill to repeal the law, has been sponsored by Representative Patrick Murphy, a Pennsylvania Democrat, in the House, no Senate sponsor has yet come forward.
Photo by The US Army
