Mar 26, 2004  |  By: BRYAN ANDERTON  | COMMENTS     

When the U.S. Army recalled Capt. Austin Rooke to active duty shortly after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, he had to go through the process of obtaining a security clearance for his job as an intelligence officer. During that process, when asked about his work history, he disclosed that he was working for the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force.

Ordinarily, that revelation would have meant the end of his military career due to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy barring gay personnel from serving openly. Despite the policy, the Army recalled Rooke and sent him to Qatar, perhaps, he speculated, because the country was headed for war.

Rooke completed his military obligations and was later honorably discharged.

The fact that Rooke’s sexual orientation was ignored or overlooked by the military follows a trend, according to a report released this week by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an organization that provides support to gays in the military. In “Conduct Unbecoming,” its 10th annual report on the DADT policy, SLDN showed military discharges based on the policy have decreased dramatically since American troops were deployed overseas.

The number of DADT-related discharges hit a record high of 1,273 in 2001, but declined to 906 in 2002 and 787 in 2003, according to the report, which compiles statistics from the Dept. of Defense and each of the branches of service.

Officials from SLDN said they couldn’t be sure that the military was purposely discharging fewer service members because of the war.

“We can’t say that with 100 percent certainty, but what we can say is that it continues a historical trend that whenever the country is at war, gay and lesbian discharges decrease,” said Steve Ralls, the communications director for SLDN. “The Pentagon seems to want to have it both ways — the talents of gay servicemen and women at times of war, and federally sanctioned discrimination at times of peace.”

But the lack of gay discharges may be part of a much larger picture. According to numerous published reports, the military is looking to boost the number of enlisted service members in the wake of the Iraq war.

In January, the Army issued a 90-day “stop-loss” order that prevented 7,000 soldiers from retiring or being discharged. According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, the Army has used a number of such orders to block more than 40,000 soldiers — 16,000 of them National Guard and reserve members — from retiring or being discharged since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Officials from the Dept. of Defense said they could not comment on SLDN’s exact figures because they had not seen the specific report, but said the military’s policies regarding gay service members had not changed.

“I can tell you that current policy has not changed over the last several years,” said Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokesperson for the Defense Dept. “A service member’s sexuality is considered a personal and private matter. We expect all service members to be treated with dignity and respect, and we conduct extensive and recurring training to eliminate harassment of all types.”

Rooke said he believed it was less of an institutional change than a matter of practicality. He said squad leaders generally had more to worry about during times of war than investigating claims about a service member’s sexual orientation.

$281 million for DADT enforcement
The report also showed that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has cost the American military more than $281 million since its inception in the fall of 1993. A large portion of that money is directly related to training replacements for discharged servicemembers.

“Obviously it costs Americans millions of dollars to retrain folks who have been kicked out, especially in the intelligence community,” Rooke said. “There’s really no basis for it. We’re one of the few NATO countries that have a ban, and all the other countries seem to do just fine.”

A number of American allies — including Canada, Australia and Israel — allow gays to serve openly in their militaries.

America’s closest ally in the Iraq war, Great Britain, ended its ban on gay soldiers in 2000.

“It’s interesting that there has not been a single report of an American service member who has said they have been uncomfortable serving with openly gay British troops or that their unit cohesion has been affected by that,” Ralls said.