U.S. Troops Serve with Gay Brits: Lifting U.K. Gay Ban was ‘Non-Event’

Several top military analysts suggested last week that there was no adverse impact on military readiness and effectiveness when troops from Great Britain, which allows gay soldiers to serve openly in the military, fought alongside American troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In interviews conducted by the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military (CSSMM), a think tank affiliated with the University of California at Santa Barbara, Lt. Gen. Gregory S. Newbold of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies said there were several occasions during the Iraqi war when the British and U.S. military exchanged personnel. During coalition campaigns, it is common for armed forces from one country to provide support for another country’s forces.

Gen. Newbold declined to comment for this article.

Retired Maj. Gen. Bill Nash, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the CSSMM that concern over gay and lesbian soldiers in the military arose less frequently in combat than in training.

“Most of the issues about women and gays take place when the bullets aren’t flying,” he told CSSMM. “When you’re fighting, you’ve got other things on your mind.”

And Congressman Martin Meehan (D-Mass.), senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, told Aaron Belkin, CSSMM’s director, that the successful coalitions witnessed during the Iraqi war constitute further proof that gays serving in the military do not impede military morale.

“The adherents to the ban have never been able to produce any evidence that allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly and honorably would harm the effectiveness of our military,” Rep. Meehan told Belkin.

Belkin noted that one of the first American casualties of the war was “exchange officer” Thomas Mullen Adams, 27, of La Mesa, Calif. Adams was killed on March 22 when the Royal Navy Sea King helicopter he was flying in collided with another helicopter over the Persian Gulf. Adams was an “exchange officer” to the Royal Navy’s 849 Squadron. The exchange program allows British and American forces to fly with each other and to share tactical information.

Glenn Truitt, a classmate of Adams’ from the Naval Academy noted that the exchange program has been in place since World War II. When Truitt was a submarine officer, he knew of gay soldiers and said that often their professionalism rose above that of their heterosexual counterparts.

“The homosexual men I knew in the military were much more professional about their sexuality than the heterosexuals,” he told Belkin.

Belkin added that American forces have always worked in concert with armed forces from other countries. He noted that U.S. troops often integrate with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) states and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which teams the United States with Canada, to protect the airspace above both countries. Canada lifted its ban on gay military service in 1992.

The British government lifted that country’s ban on gays serving in the military three years ago and announced in March that it would provide a spousal pension to same-sex partners of service members killed in action.

When the British lifted their ban in January 2000, the government conducted a study that concluded that the presence of openly gay and lesbian service members did not have a negative impact on the military.

“Basically, it’s all still going fine,” said Simon Langley, press and media officer for the London-based Armed Forces Lesbian & Gay Association, an advocacy group for gay service members in Britain.

“There’s been a few problems, but nothing more than issues that arise when people come out at their place of work,” Langley said.

“The best way to describe it,” he said, in discussing Britain’s lifting of its ban on gays in the military, “is it was a non-event. The world didn’t come to an end. People just went about their business.”

CSSMM analyzed how well the British military faired once the ban was lifted. Belkin and CSSMM concluded, through interviews with military experts and government officials that heterosexual service members quickly adapted to the change.

Belkin added that his research showed, to some degree, that the ban had resulted in more harassment because gay soldiers under the previous policy were never able to report such aggravation. With the ban lifted, more soldiers were emboldened (and allowed) to report such intimidation through a formal complaint. CSSMM estimates that prior to the lifting of the ban, the British military discharged 60 to 100 soldiers each year.

Belkin said that the United States was institutionally “locked in” and noted that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” was not going away any time soon.

“The Supreme Court is not going to say anything about ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ because of its ideological tilt and tradition of deferring to the military and resistance to gay rights,” Belkin said. “Congress is not going to do anything. Neither party has an incentive to talk about gay rights. Republicans wouldn’t and Democrats will look weak on defense. You might see some talk of it during the Democratic primaries but once the Democrats choose their nominee this will be off the map.”

Joe Crea can be reached at jcrea@washblade.com.