New Report by Senior Military Leaders Urges End to Gay Ban
A new study released today by a nonpartisan team of retired senior flag and general officers from the U.S. military has concluded that the ban on openly gay service members is counterproductive and should end, the Associated Press reported today. The report marks the first time a Marine Corps general has ever called publicly for an end to the gay ban.
"I believe this should have been done much earlier," said Brigadier General Hugh Aitken, USMC (Ret.), one of the authors of the report.
The report makes ten findings and four recommendations, including that the policy prevents some gay troops from performing their duties; that gays already serve openly; that tolerance of homosexuality in the military has grown dramatically; and that lifting the ban is "unlikely to pose any significant risk to morale, good order, discipline, or cohesion."
The report can be found at www.palmcenter.org.
The Palm Center, a research institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, commissioned the new report. The officers reached their findings independently and required a written pledge that the Center would publish their recommendations regardless of the political implications.
General John Shalikashvili, the former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who previously favored the gay ban but reversed course last year, endorsed the officers' new study, calling it "one of the most comprehensive evaluations of the issue of gays in the military since the Rand study fifteen years ago."
Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, said the new report could bolster recent momentum in Congress to change the policy. "Many lawmakers want to untie the military's hands on this policy," Belkin said, "and today's report will likely add pressure on Congress to act."
The new report is based on discussions the senior flag and general officers held with expert panels in Washington, D.C. over the past year. The group heard from senior and enlisted military members, scholarly experts, and government officials. Prominent opponents of letting open gays serve in the military were also invited to testify.
