President
Bush
must
give
final
approval
through
an
executive
order
to
enable
the
Pentagon
to
preserve
its
policy
of
criminalizing
consensual
sodomy
among
military
service
members,
according
to
attorneys
familiar
with
military
law.
The
Department
of
Defense
has
been
deliberating
over
whether
its
military
sodomy
law
could
be
retained
since
2003,
when
the
U.S.
Supreme
Court
struck
down
state
sodomy
laws
on
grounds
that
they
infringe
on
the
constitutional
right
of
adult
citizens
to
engage
in
private,
consensual
sex.
The
military
has
claimed
the
law
banning
sodomy
is
its
main
justification
for
not
allowing
gay
men
and
lesbians
to
serve
openly.
Most
legal
experts
have
said
the
Supreme
Court
ruling,
which
was
hailed
by
gay
rights
attorneys,
applies
equally
to
the
military
and
the
civilian
population.
The
DOD
disclosed
its
strategy
for
retaining
its
sodomy
prohibition
in
the
wake
of
the
Lawrence
vs.
Texas
decision
on
April
7,
when
it
sent
Congress
a
proposed
amendment
to
the
Uniform
Code
of
Military
Justice,
the
statute
that
contains
the
military’s
sodomy
law.
The
DOD
also
sent
Congress
a
proposed
change
to
its
Manual
for
Courts-Martial,
which
has
served
as
a
set
of
regulations
the
DOD
has
used
to
implement
various
provisions
in
the
Uniform
Code
of
Military
Justice,
known
as
the
UCMJ.
Gay
activists
initially
praised
the
proposed
changes
after
the
New
York
Times
reported
last
week
that
they
called
for
removing
the
prohibition
of
consensual
sodomy
from
the
UCMJ.
But
a
DOD
spokesperson
quickly
contradicted
the
Times
report,
saying
the
DOD
plans
to
retain
consensual
sodomy
as
a
crime
by
moving
it
from
one
section
of
the
UCMJ
to
another,
and
making
it
a
regulatory
offense
in
the
court
martial
manual.
The
Servicemembers
Legal
Defense
Network,
a
gay
litigation
group,
called
the
proposed
changes
a
“shell
game”
that
would
not
stand
up
to
a
legal
challenge
under
the
Lawrence
decision.
SLDN
noted
that
at
least
two
military
appeals
court
rulings
have
cited
the
Lawrence
decision,
with
one
overturning
a
military
sodomy
conviction
last
December
and
another
curtailing
the
military’s
enforcement
of
its
sodomy
law
in
August
2004.
“Pentagon
leaders
cannot
run
and
hide
from
the
Constitution,”
said
Sharra
Greer,
SLDN’s
director
of
policy
and
law.
In
its
proposed
changes,
the
DOD
calls
for
moving
the
sodomy
prohibition
from
Article
125
of
the
UCMJ,
which
is
considered
a
section
of
the
military’s
criminal
law,
to
the
UCMJ’s
Article
134.
Article
134,
among
other
issues,
addresses
matters
pertaining
to
conduct
considered
“prejudicial
to
good
order
and
discipline”
among
service
members.
Provisions
under
Article
134
are
enforced
through
the
DOD’s
Manual
for
Courts-Martial.
Changes
to
the
manual
are
considered
to
be
regulatory
in
nature
and
are
not
specifically
part
of
the
UCMJ.
However,
they
must
be
put
in
place
by
the
president,
with
the
approval
of
Congress,
the
DOD
told
United
Press
International
on
Monday.
President
Clinton
issued
two
separate
executive
orders
changing
the
DOD
Manual
for
Courts-Martial
in
ways
that
supported
gay
rights.
One
of
his
changes
created
a
provision
to
prosecute
hate
crimes.
The
other
change
prevented
the
military
from
investigating
service
members
for
being
gay
if
information
about
their
sexual
orientation
surfaced
in
a
routine
background
check
for
a
security
clearance.
Tara
Andringa,
a
spokesperson
for
Sen.
Carl
Levin
(D-Mich.),
the
ranking
minority
member
of
the
Senate
Armed
Services
Committee,
said
it
is
widely
believed
among
Capitol
Hill
observers
that
Bush
will
agree
to
issue
an
executive
order
retaining
the
military’s
sodomy
prohibition.
Andringa
noted
that
the
DOD
most
likely
sent
its
recommendations
to
Congress
calling
for
the
changes
needed
to
preserve
the
military
sodomy
prohibition
with
the
approval
of
the
White
House.
She
said
Levin,
who
has
been
a
critic
of
some
of
the
Bush
administration’s
military
policies,
has
not
yet
commented
on
the
proposal
to
retain
the
military’s
sodomy
prohibition.
A
spokesperson
for
Senator
John
Warner
(R-Va.),
chair
of
the
Armed
Services
panel,
did
not
respond
to
a
Blade
inquiry
by
press
time.
Warner
is
considered
one
of
the
most
influential
members
of
Congress
on
military
matters.
Gay
rights
attorneys
believe
the
outcome
of
the
military’s
sodomy
law
is
important
because
it
has
been
cited
by
military
leaders
as
a
key
reason
for
prohibiting
gays
from
serving
openly
in
the
military
under
the
Pentagon’s
“Don’t
Ask,
Don’t
Tell”
policy.
That
policy,
which
President
Clinton
proposed
in
1993
and
Congress
enacted
into
law,
holds
that
gays
are
unsuitable
for
military
service,
in
part,
because
they
engage
in
conduct
deemed
illegal
under
the
UCMJ’s
sodomy
clause.
Attorneys
for
SLDN
and
the
national
gay
group
Log
Cabin
Republicans
have
filed
separate
lawsuits
challenging
the
“Don’t
Ask,
Don’t
Tell”
policy
on
a
variety
of
grounds,
including
that
the
Lawrence
decision
makes
the
military’s
laws
against
sodomy
obsolete.
Virginia
Senator
John
Warner,
a
Republican,
heads
the
Armed
Services
Committee
that
will
look
at
changes
to
the
military
laws
on
sodomy.
|
In
December
2004,
the
U.S.
Army
Court
of
Criminal
Appeals
ruled
in
a
case
known
as
United
States
vs.
Bullock
that
a
guilty
plea
by
a
soldier
who
admitted
to
engaging
in
consensual
sodomy
with
an
adult
female
in
his
private
barracks
quarters
should
be
overturned.
The
Army
appeals
court
cited
the
Lawrence
decision
and
an
August
2004
decision
by
the
Court
of
Appeals
for
the
Armed
Forces
known
as
the
U.S.
vs.
Marcum.
The
Marcum
decision
held
that
the
Supreme
Court’s
Lawrence
ruling
restricted
...
