By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Feb 22 | The New York Times is reporting on a study to be released Tuesday, February 23rd, by The Palm Center, a research institute unit of the Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
The study concludes that foreign militaries that allow gays and lesbians to serve openly achieved success by implementing an inclusive policy quickly and under decisive leadership. The study, "Gays in Foreign Militaries 2010: A Global Primer," is the largest ever study on the experiences of foreign militaries. Its principal author is Palm Senior Research Fellow, Dr. Nathaniel Frank, who last year published the book, "Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America." Contributing to the report was Palm Center Director, Dr. Aaron Bel-kin, as well as a retired Captain in the Canadian Forces and several other experts on gender, sexuality, and military personnel policy.
Dr. Nathaniel Frank Photo Courtesy of The Palm Center, UCSB
Other key conclusions of the new study are that preliminary findings that open gays do not disrupt military effectiveness hold over time, including in Britain, whose policy of non-discrimination marked its ten-year anniversary last month; that successful transitions did not involve creating separate facilities or distinct rules for gays or straights; and that the U.S. has a long tradition of turning to foreign armed forces as relevant sources of information about effective military policy.
The Palm Center's Director, Dr. Aaron Belkin also recently announced plans to convene a Washington, D.C. summit of officials and experts from military forces that allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly, including the Israel Defense Force and NATO member militaries. The summit, which is planned for early spring, will focus on the implementation of personnel policies for openly gay troops. British and Israeli experts have confirmed their participation.
“As military and political leaders anticipate the end of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ the lessons from the twenty-five foreign forces that allow open gay service are instructive,” stated Dr. Belkin.
Belkin cited three questions that generally dominate the comparison: Did the decision to allow open gay service undermine military readiness? How was implementation managed? To what extent can lessons from abroad help U.S. officials plan for an inclusive policy? In 1993, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) submitted a report to Congress regarding gays and lesbians in foreign militaries. It assessed the impact of open service on military readiness, finding that “Military officials in all four countries said that the presence of homosexuals in the military is not an issue and has not created problems in the functioning of military units.” A 1993 report by the RAND Corporation reached a similar conclusion. During the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Maine Senator Susan Collins asked if any NATO partners had reported difficulties since their implementation of open service. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he had spoken to many NATO allies and they reported “no impact” on military performance.
Senator Joesph Lieberman, (I-Connecticut) a key member of that committee, today announced that he would be introducing a bill in the Senate to repeal the DADT policy. Lieberman confirmed his plan to become the chief sponsor for the bill in an interview with correspondent James Kirchick of the New York Daily News. According to Kichick:
"In an exclusive interview with the Daily News, Lieberman told me that his commitment to repealing DADT is twofold,” wrote Kirchick. “First, allowing gays to serve openly fulfills the bedrock American promise of providing citizens with ‘an equal opportunity to do whatever job their talents and sense of purpose and motivations lead them to want to do - including military service.’ Second, and no less important for a lawmaker whose commitment to national security the Pentagon can't doubt, is that ‘When you artificially limit the pool of people who can enlist then you are diminishing military effectiveness.’”
With the announced release of the Palm Center Study coupled with the summit and Senator Lieberman's announcement. Capital Hill observers expect that there is a possibility that the Pentagon will may move forward on DADT on a tighter schedule and time frame than previously indicated by Defence Secretary Gates.
However, General David H. Petraeus, Commander of the U.S. Central Command who oversees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, that a review currently under way by the Defence Department, which is to include a poll of military attitudes on the change, “is very important to this overall process.” The review, he indicated “will suggest the policies that could be used to implement a change if it does come to that.”
Petraeus, while acknowledging that permitting openly gay service members in Britain and Israel had in the end been “uneventful,” did not give his personal opinion on the merits of allowing gays to serve in the United States armed forces. “I support what our secretary and our chairman have embarked on here,” he said, adding that he would offer his own opinion if he was asked in a hearing on Capitol Hill.
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