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I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Like the U.S. military, the British Services is an all-volunteer force comprised of army, air force and navy contingents. Until January, 2000, when Britain lifted its gay ban following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, gay and lesbian soldiers were prohibited from serving in the British Armed Forces.

The first ten months of the new policy have been an unqualified success. The military’s own classified, internal assessment at six months found that the new policy has “been hailed as a solid achievement” (Ministry of Defense, 2000e, p. 2). There have been no indications of negative effects on recruiting levels. No mass resignations have occurred. There have been no major reported cases of gay-bashing or harassment of sexual minorities. There have been no major reported cases of harassment or inappropriate behavior by gay or lesbian soldiers. There has been no perceived effect on morale, unit cohesion or operational effectiveness. The policy change has been characterized by a “marked lack of reaction” (Ministry of Defense, 2000e, p. 2).

The conclusions of the Ministry of Defense report have been confirmed by our conversations with more than twenty-five representatives from the military, academia, and non-governmental organizations. None of those interviewed know of any major problems associated with the policy change. No one has heard of any difficulties related to recruitment or training completion rates; recruitment levels are characterized as “quite buoyant.”

None of those interviewed for this report have heard of cases of serious homophobic harassment. Open gay service personnel interviewed for this report and by other sources describe collegial treatment by their co-workers and other service members.

Experts in all fields acknowledged that more work remains to be done, and new obstacles could still emerge. Homophobic attitudes persist throughout the Services. It is possible that some problems will develop as more gay and lesbian service personnel acknowledge their sexual orientation to colleagues, or if the Armed Forces relaxes its vigilance against harassment and inappropriate behavior of all kinds. Issues of equality such as pension, accommodation and partnership rights have yet to be addressed. Still, concerns of dire consequences have been replaced by a general recognition that the transition has proceeded smoothly.

II. INTRODUCTION

Until January 12, 2000, the British Services maintained an official policy of discharging all known gay and lesbian soldiers.[1] It was felt that close living quarters and the stresses of military life precluded the inclusion of homosexual servicemembers; military commanders argued that “homosexual behavior can cause offence, polarize relationships, induce ill-discipline, and as a consequence damage morale and unit effectiveness” (Ministry of Defense, 1994, p.1). At the beginning of this year, the British Armed Forces ended its policy of excluding gay and lesbian soldiers. The change came as a result of a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights and after years of resistance by the Armed Forces to lifting the ban. Once the decision was announced, however, the Services quickly established a policy of nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Instead, the social conduct rules were rewritten to prohibit sexual behavior, by both heterosexuals and homosexuals, that adversely affects operational effectiveness. Such misconduct includes, but is not limited to, sexual harassment, sexual contact with subordinates, and overt displays of affection between servicemembers. The new inclusive policy remains politically charged; even with the European Court decision, leaders of the Conservative Party have declared that they would reevaluate the policy if returned to majority status.

This report draws together military documents; press coverage; prior research on homosexual military issues; and interviews with military officials, academics, think tank and non-profit organization representatives, and sexual minorities presently serving in the military to provide an appraisal of the initial effects of the policy change. All available information indicates that the removal of the ban has been a success in its first nine months. The military undertook its own internal review of the new policy six months after enactment and declared that the transition has been characterized by a “marked lack of reaction” (Ministry of Defense, 2000c, p. 2). The policy change has had no perceptible impact on unit cohesion, morale, or operational effectiveness. There is no indication of any discernible effects on recruiting, training completion or resignation rates. There have been no major problems of gay-bashing, harassment or sexual misconduct associated with the new policy. While the long-term consequences of the policy change remain to be seen, fears of upheaval within the military have largely been replaced with an awareness that the transition has proceeded smoothly.

III. METHODOLOGY

Information collected for this report was systematically gathered from publicly available primary and secondary sources relevant to an understanding of military outcomes associated with homosexual service in the British Armed Forces. Sources and methods included: identification, retrieval, and analysis of prior research bearing on homosexual service in the British military conducted by governmental, academic, and policy-focused organizations; content analysis of Lexis/Nexis search retrievals for all news articles and wire service dispatches relating to homosexual service in the British Armed Forces (n=101); interviews with present and former military officials (n=10); interviews with journalists and major academic, non-governmental, and policy observers familiar with gay-military issues in Britain or British military concerns generally (n=14); and interviews with present and former sexual minority participants in the British Services who were located through snowball sampling (n=5[2]).

This report relies on a multi-method approach to compare and synthesize evidence provided by a variety of sources in order to draw conclusions. Whenever possible, independent observations from multiple sources are compared to draw out common findings that are consistent among observers in different sectors (e.g., military, academic, non-governmental). During the interview process, we also sought to ensure the broadest universe of sources by repeatedly asking expert observers from different sectors for recommendations of additional sources of information.

IV. POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

From 1864 to 1885, male homosexuality was illegal in Britain unless conducted in private and by consent. In 1885, the new offense of “gross indecency” criminalized all sexual activity between men, and male homosexuality remained wholly illegal until the passage of the 1967 Sexual Offenses Act[3]. Female homosexuality was never similarly banned, purportedly because Queen Victoria refused to believe that lesbianism existed. In 1967, Parliament partially decriminalized gay sexual activity by legalizing private consensual sex between two men over the age of 21. Male homosexual sex with anyone under 21, in public, or between more than two men remained a criminal offense. The 1967 Sexual Offences Act also included an exemption for the Armed Forces, so that male servicemembers could still be convicted for consensual homosexual sex of any kind (Rayside, 1998; Harries-Jenkins and Dandeker, 1994).

Although British attitudes towards homosexuality have become more tolerant over the last twenty-five years[4] (Scott, 1998), polling data reveal continued widespread discomfort with sexual minorities. A 1994 study found that a majority of British respondents felt sex between members of the same sex is always wrong[5] (cited in Hayes, 1997). The British public also continues to be conservative about issues such as gay and lesbian public school teachers and adoption by homosexuals (Hayes, 1997). The data does, however, show greater tolerance of sexual minorities in other areas. Polling on the age of sexual consent revealed that approximately 75% favored equality in principle, although less than 20% specifically supported changing the age of consent to sixteen (Rayside, 1998). With respect to the issue of homosexual service in the military, a 1999 Stonewall poll found that approximately 70% of Britons opposed the ban on homosexual soldiers, with a majority in every class and party in favor of inclusion of gays and lesbians in the military (Norton-Taylor, 1999)[6].

Homosexuality has been the subject of fierce skirmishes between the Conservative and Labor parties, and between religious leaders and gay rights advocates, for more than a decade. The passage in 1987 of Section 28, a law that bans local authorities from promoting the acceptability of homosexuality in schools, became a catalytic force for supporters of expanded gay and lesbian rights (Rayside, 1998)[7]. After considerable pressure by the gay-rights groups Stonewall and Outrage!, the age of consent for homosexual sex was decreased from 21 to 18 in 1994; this new minimum was, however, still higher than the age of 16 for heterosexual consent (See Majendie, 1995). The Labor Party, which presently holds power, has long supported the inclusion of sexual minorities in the military and expanded rights for homosexuals (Rayside, 1998). The Labor government has been working on a code that will instruct employers to grant homosexual partners the same rights to health care, travel benefits and relocation allowances as heterosexual married couples (Sylvester, 2000; Sylvester, 2000a). The government has also been trying unsuccessfully for more than a year to repeal Section 28 (See Jones, 2000; Jones, 2000a; and Britton, 2000).

Until the Human Rights Act[8] went into effect in October 2000, Britons were not protected by a set of enumerated fundamental human rights similar to that provided by the U.S. Bill of Rights. British citizens looking for judicial redress for governmental human rights violations had to pass what is known as the “Wednesbury test”, which mandated that courts could only overrule a governmental action if it “outrageously defies logic or accepted moral standards” so that “no sensible person who had applied his mind to the question could have arrived at it” (cited in The Lawyer On-Line, 1995). In practice, the Wednesbury test proved to be an extremely difficult hurdle to overcome. Since Britain was a signatory of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, British citizens could also take human rights complaints before the European Court of Human Rights[9]. They could only do so, however, after exhausting all British channels, including the High Court, the Court of Appeals, and the House of Lords[10][11]. While the European Convention on Human Rights does not explicitly include sexual orientation, it has been interpreted expansively to encompass the rights of sexual minorities[12].

V. A HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S MILITARY POLICY CONCERNING SEXUAL MINORITIES

Like the U.S. military, the British Services is an all-volunteer force comprised of army, air force and navy contingents[13]. Military conduct is governed by the Queen’s Regulations, which are reviewed by Parliament every five years (RAND, 1993). The British military includes approximately 211,000 soldiers; 7.9% of the officers and 5.4% of the enlisted soldiers are women. During the 1980s and early 1990s, women became more fully integrated into the British military. Women are employed in all corps except armor and infantry, although they are not permitted beyond the second echelon of brigade in combat. Women are allowed to serve at sea in most of the surface specialties, although they cannot work on small vessels such as submarines (Dandeker, 2000).

Like most of its NATO allies, the British military has faced conflicting pressures since the end of the Cold War. Troop strength has been reduced by 30%, and the percentage of GDP devoted to defense decreased from 5.2% in 1984-85 to approximately 2.8% in 1997-98[14] (Dandeker, 2000). At the same time, the scope of peacekeeping missions has expanded considerably, and the Armed Forces has had to prepare itself for a wider variety of operations due to changing defense roles. The British Services has also faced recruiting shortages since 1992 (Tweedle, 2000)[15]. The military has responded to these constraints in part by developing a recruitment initiative, increasing the use of reserves and by civilianizing and outsourcing some jobs previously performed by soldiers (Dandeker, 2000; Kirkbride, 1996).

Until January 2000, gay and lesbian soldiers were prohibited from serving in the British Armed Forces. Prior to 1967, British civil and military law were congruous with respect to male homosexuality – sodomy was illegal, and both civilians and soldiers could be imprisoned for homosexual activity. The 1967 Sexual Offences Act decriminalized gay male sex for civilians, but it included an exemption that allowed the British military to continue to prosecute servicemembers engaging in gay sex (Rayside, 1998; Harries-Jenkins and Dandeker, 1994). Gay soldiers could also be administratively discharged from the Services. While civil law did not cover same-sex female sex, however, the military was able to discharge lesbians under the offense of general misconduct[16]. Offenses for homosexuality were usually charged as “disgraceful conduct of an indecent kind”, “conduct prejudicial to good order or discipline”, or more rarely “scandalous conduct by officers” (Harries-Jenkins and Dandeker, 1994).

In the wake of considerable Parliamentary debate on the subject during discussions about the 1991 Armed Forces Bill, the government acknowledged that the military exemption from the 1967 Sexual Offenses Act was no longer justifiable. In June 1992, the Ministry of Defense (MOD) announced an administrative order to immediately halt criminal prosecution for sexual activities that were legal for civilians under the 1967 act. The British restricted court-martials for homosexuality to those male servicemembers who were found to have had sex in public or with anyone under the age of 21. The legislative reconciliation of military and civilian law occurred later with the passage of the 1994 Criminal Justice Act. The military persisted in maintaining, however, that both male and female homosexuality were incompatible with military service. Gay and lesbian soldiers continued to face discharge if their sexual orientation was discovered (Harries-Jenkins and Dandeker, 1994).

Figures for the number of gay and lesbian service members discharged while the ban was in place vary among sources. Estimates range between 60 and 100 each year between 1988 and 1995[17]. Harries-Jenkins and Dandeker report that 296 service members were administratively discharged between 1988 and 1992, while an additional 39 soldiers were dismissed following conviction for an offense involving homosexuality during the same period (Harries-Jenkins and Dandeker, 1994, p. 193)[18][19]. When factoring in servicemembers who left without being discharged, Evans surmises that as many as 150 soldiers departed the military each year due to the policy on sexual orientation (Evans, 2000). Because the British Services did not keep statistics about the cost of the policy, no definitive figures exist about the fiscal impact of the ban on sexual minorities. Using GAO figures for the U.S. and extrapolating them to the British case, Edmund Hall estimated that the restrictive policy cost the British military L40 to 50 million between 1990 and 1995 (Hall, 1995)[20].

Prior to 1994, the Royal Navy was the only branch of the Armed Forces that maintained specific guidelines related to homosexuality[21]; the other Services dealt with homosexuality through general regulations. The Navy’s guidelines provided the following instructions for medical officers when dealing with suspected gay or lesbian personnel:

…homosexuals are often a source of sexually transmitted diseases … Tears and stains, particularly of the underpants, trousers and shirt, should be examined and, if available, an ultra-violet light should be used to screen the clothing, bearing in mind that semen is not the only substance which fluoresces under UV light. (cited in Hall, 1995, p. 75)

The guidelines also suggested that investigators seek to determine “whether the man may have played the passive role” and recommended that the agent “look for feminine gestures, nature of clothing and use of cosmetics” (Hall, 1995, p. 76).

In 1994, the Ministry of Defense issued Service-wide regulations concerning homosexual soldiers. The new regulations maintained the policy of barring homosexual service, but they standardized policy and provided more detailed protocol. Any recruit who admitted to being gay would not be allowed to enlist, and any servicemember who was discovered to be homosexual would be discharged from the military. Homosexual sex between adults of consensual age would not be considered a criminal offense, but the military could prosecute a gay or lesbian soldier for otherwise consensual sex if “the act was to the prejudice of good order and Service discipline” [22] (Ministry of Defense, 1994, Annex 2). All recruits were to be informed that homosexuals were not allowed to serve in the British Armed Forces. The 1994 policy made it clear that homosexual orientation as well as homosexual behavior would be a bar to enlistment and service:

Even if a potential recruit admits to being homosexual, but states that he/she does not at present nor in the future intend to engage in homosexual activity, he/she will not be enlisted. (Ministry of Defense, 1994, p. 2)

The 1994 policy also included instructions for medical officers[23] in dealing with homosexual service personnel. The guidelines informed medical officers that “homosexuality is not in itself a medical condition” and “intimate examinations are not indicated purely on the grounds of homosexuality” (Ministry of Defense, 1994, Annex A). The medical officer was to be consulted to confirm the orientation of a professed homosexual, to advise commanders in dealing with cases of homosexuality, and to insure the emotional stability of the soldier in question. If a gay or lesbian soldier was referred to the medical officer after his or her sexual orientation was already known, the health practitioner’s job was to “assess the individual’s physical and mental wellbeing, including the need for onward referral to specialist services if required” (Ministry of Defense, 1994, Annex A). The Ministry of Defense recognized that revelation of one’s homosexual orientation could be psychologically devastating in the context of the military’s ban on sexual minorities:

The Medical Officer should remember that ‘coming out’, [sic] can be highly stressful, particularly because of the prospect of the loss of a career, and attention should be paid to assessment of the individual’s mental state since some individuals are vulnerable to thoughts of self harm at this time. (Ministry of Defense, 1994, Annex A)

The military’s need for information about gay and lesbian soldiers did, however, outweigh any medical confidentiality rules. If a soldier’s sexual orientation was already known and the purpose of an interview was therefore not to establish sexual identity, the medical officer might still be required to discuss the “health and psychological development” of the soldier with a commanding officer (Ministry of Defense, 1994, Annex A). While the medical officer was advised to obtain the consent of the servicemember, disclosure would be expected even if consent was not procured. If a servicemember was acknowledging his or her orientation for the first time, the individual was to be informed that:

…notwithstanding medical confidentiality, the Medical Officer has a duty to report to the Commanding Officer any information relating to a serious offence or matters which might adversely affect the health, security or discipline of the unit. If the Medical Officer is satisfied that the individual is experiencing homosexual feeling then it would be most unusual not to discuss the matter with the Commanding Officer (again if possible having obtained the individual’s consent). (Ministry of Defense, 1994, Annex A)

Commanding officers could handle cases of suspected homosexuality with their own staff or through official investigatory channels (Ministry of Defense, 1994, Annex A). Military investigations were conducted by each service’s police forces: the Royal Military Police (RMP) and Special Investigating Branch for the Army, the RAF police and Security Services (P&SS) for the Air Force, and the Royal Navy’s Regulating Branch and Special Investigating Branch (SIB). Investigations could include undercover surveillance, lengthy questioning, medical examinations, and searches through personal materials to uncover information about other homosexual soldiers (Hall, 1995).

Former servicemember Joan Heggie experienced investigations for suspected homosexuals as both a military policewoman and a target of investigation. She describes common tactics used during her tenure with the British Army in the late 1970s and early 1980s:

The MPs conducted raids in the middle of the night to women’s barracks to “catch people in the act”. The military police would gain access to the garrison with the permission of the commanding officer. Nine out of ten times the commanders would give permission, because they wanted to show that they were not accepting of lesbianism. The MPs would bring dogs and say they were looking for drugs, even though drugs were not a major problem in the early 80s. They would look under beds, in wardrobes and even out windows to make sure that no one was hiding there. I’ve been told that some MPs who really had a thing about homosexuality, particularly with women, would keep information on people on an index card and build up a record. If they came across information that corroborated what they had heard earlier, even if it was years later, they would target that person for investigation[24]. (Personal Communication, October 3 and 16, 2000)

Heggie added that, in such a restrictive environment, “Every day I woke up thinking ‘Today might be the day that I get kicked out’” (Personal Communication, October 3 and 16, 2000). Other former service personnel have told of the military using information from blackmailers, staking out local gay bars and pubs, asking detailed and embarrassing questions about sexual practices in interrogations, and even recommending shock aversion treatment (Nunn, Personal Communication, October 17, 2000; O’Kelly, 1995; Mills, 1995; Hall, 1995).

Ministry of Defense officials in told journalist Edmund Hall in 1995 that they did not believe the police routinely carried out surveillance of gay and lesbian establishments. They did, however, acknowledge that individual surveillance probably occurred. One Ministry of Defense official declared:

Policemen are very difficult to control. … If you tell me that this kind of surveillance is taking place then it’s beyond the call of duty. Policemen have got to have their own agenda. (Hall, 1995, pp.78-79)

General Sir Charles Guthrie, Chief of the Defense Staff, admitted at the time of the removal of the ban that military police investigations of suspected gays and lesbians sometimes “went too far” and expressed regret at the way some interrogations had been carried out (cited in Evans, 2000). The European Court of Human Rights also condemned the investigations of the plaintiffs as “exceptionally intrusive” in their ruling against the Ministry of Defense (Evans, 2000).

The British Armed Services’ exclusion of homosexuals from service, even after gay sex was decriminalized by Parliament in 1967, stemmed from the conviction that the unique conditions and objectives of the military precluded behavior that was acceptable in civilian life. Defense Minister Nicholas Soames commented in 1996 that:

The view of the service chiefs and of Ministers is not based on any moral judgment but on the impracticality of homosexual behavior, which is clearly not compatible with service life. (The Lawyer Online, 1996)

Military commanders argued that the sacred duties of the Armed Forces - to protect the nation from harm and to advance Britain’s interests even at the expense of loss of life - necessitated considerable caution when advocating changes in military organization or the composition of personnel. The inclusion of gay and lesbian soldiers was viewed as social engineering that could damage the integrity of military units.

The unique conditions specified by military officials included cramped living conditions, same-sex facilities and the dependence on one’s comrades in life-threatening situations. Given extended excursions at sea and on foreign missions, military personnel often live under conditions of minimal privacy. First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jock Slater declared in 1995 that:

Everyone who joins the Navy is committed to going to sea and therefore there is no question of ‘it is acceptable ashore but not at sea’. I then look at the conditions at sea, where relatively they are cramped, they are crowded; it can be tough, it can be stressful. (Weale, 1995, p. 1)

Military leaders argued that the intimacy of living together in same-sex barracks, showering together, and sharing toilet and washing facilities made homosexual service impractical (see The Lawyer Online, 1995). They further contended that heterosexual servicemembers would feel uncomfortable showering or sleeping next to a homosexual soldier.

British commanders also asserted that the friction that could arise between gay and lesbian soldiers and their heterosexual colleagues would undermine morale and unit cohesion and even threaten the success of its operations. Soldiers need to depend on their comrades in life-threatening situations. Commanders argued that the introduction of distrust or ill-will among individuals within a unit due to differences in sexual orientation could have disastrous consequences on the effectiveness of that unit. Defense Minister Archie Hamilton argued during a 1991 debate in Parliament:

[B]oth homosexual activity and orientation are incompatible with service in the armed forces. The main reason centers on the need to maintain discipline and morale. The services are hierarchical, close knit [sic] overwhelmingly single sex and young communities. Units can work to full effectiveness only on the basis of mutual trust and the expectation of equal treatment among each rank. The formation within these units of sexually motivated relationships are potentially very disruptive of discipline and morale, particularly when they cross rank boundaries. (cited in Harries-Jenkins and Dandeker, 1994)

The 1994 regulations regarding homosexuality explicitly included concerns about operational effectiveness as well:

Homosexuality … is considered incompatible with service in the Armed Forces. This is not only because of the close physical conditions in which personnel often have to live and work, but also because homosexual behavior can cause offence, polarize relationships, induce ill-discipline, and as a consequence damage morale and unit effectiveness. (Ministry of Defense, 1994, p.1)[25]

Much was also made of the need of the military to protect its youthful servicemembers from the danger of homosexual sexual predators. One third of the British Armed Forces recruits in the mid 1990s were under the age of eighteen. Military officials argued that removal of the ban would result in “sexual exploitation by older, more senior, personnel” (cited in Harnden, 1996). Not only did the service chiefs feel they had a duty to protect the minors in their care, but they also worried that the potential for sexual abuse could also jeopardize recruitment among young men and women[26]. Air Chief Marshal Sir John Willis warned in 1995 that “the confidence both of young people to join the Armed Forces, and their parents to permit them to join the Armed Forces, would be seriously damaged” (The Lawyer Online, 1995).

vi. court cases concerning the armed forces’ Ban on

sexual minorities and the military’s response

In 1994, four servicemembers discharged for homosexuality began a legal challenge in British courts against the military’s ban on gay and lesbian soldiers. Lawyers for the servicemembers invoked the Wednesbury doctrine and the European Convention on Human Rights to argue that the privacy rights of the soldiers had been violated. The former service personnel included: Lt. Cdr. Duncan Lustig-Prean, a former naval supply officer; Sgt. Graeme Grady, a former RAF intelligence officer; Jeanette Smith, a former RAF nurse; and John Beckett, a former naval weapons engineer on a nuclear submarine. Their case was backed by Stonewall, a British gay and lesbian rights group.

The four plaintiffs had excellent military records and many years of service between them (see Lyall, 1999). Lieutenant Commander Lustig-Prean maintained an ‘exemplary’ service record of fifteen years (Hicklin, 1995). He was about to be appointed a military advisor to John Major when he was discharged after reporting a blackmail attempt. Sergeant Grady, the married father of two children, was the chief clerk at the British defense intelligence liaison office in Washington, D.C. and had high security clearance. He was released after he was seen attending a counseling group for gay married men (Agence France Presse, 1999; Guardian, 1999). Smith, an RAF nurse for five years who had been recommended for promotion four times, was dismissed after an anonymous caller informed her superiors of her relationship with a civilian woman (Booth, 1999; Guardian, 1999a). During her interrogation, Smith was asked if she had ever had sex with her partner’s adolescent daughter, whether she used sexual appliances during sex, and who was the dominant sexual partner in her relationship (Agence France Presse, 1999). Beckett was a potential officer candidate. He was released from service after disclosing his relationship with a civilian man to his chaplain, who encouraged him to tell his commanding officer. It was his only gay relationship. Beckett alleges that the Royal Naval psychiatrist suggested electric shock aversion therapy (Mills, 1995).

In June 1995, the High Court ruled against the discharged service members on the grounds that the British courts did not have the authority to invoke the European Convention on Human Rights. Justices of the High Court signaled, however, that the policy was unlikely to withstand judgement by the European Court. Lord Justice Simon Brown declared at the time that “the tide of history is against the Ministry”, and “so far as this country’s international obligations are concerned the days of this policy are numbered” (cited in The Lawyer On-Line, 1995). Britain’s Court of Appeals upheld the High Court’s decision in November 1995 (Majendie, 1995)[27].

In response to the High Court’s warning that the ban would likely be overturned by the European Court, the Ministry of Defense assembled the Homosexual Policy Assessment Team (HPAT) in 1995 to appraise the existing policy and determine if changes were needed (Butcher, 1995). The HPAT report[28], which was released in 1996, included survey data from servicemembers and analyses of the military policies toward sexual minorities in Australia, Canada, Israel, the Netherlands and the U.S. A month before the release of the report, an insider leaked to journalists that the HPAT committee would propose a compromise policy that would permit individuals with a homosexual orientation to serve while continuing to prohibit homosexual contact between servicemembers. A source close to the committee commented, “We are looking to take some of the heat out of the issue. We need to make some changes while respecting the strong feeling in the Services” (Gilligan, 1995, p.1). But the source also acknowledged that the proposals were provisional and could be changed (Gilligan, 1995). By the time the report was released in February, the committee did in fact recommend the continued prohibition of homosexual service.

The HPAT report argued that lifting the ban on homosexual soldiers would be an “affront to Service people” and would harm fighting efficiency. The report maintained that while “evolving social attitudes towards homosexuality” might induce further review, “it may equally be that the permanent features of the military environment are such that it will never be possible to integrate homosexuals” (cited in Harnden, 1996). The report evoked the unique demands of military life to justify restrictions not necessary in civilian life, declaring: “No other employer sends its employees out in disciplined teams to kill and be killed”. Ending the ban would likely lead to “heterosexual resentment and hostility” and would be viewed by military personnel as “coercive interference in their way of life” (cited in Harnden, 1996).

The HPAT report also included an attitudinal survey of 13,500 servicemembers. 80% of those surveyed felt that the ban should continue indefinitely, while only 5% felt the ban should be lifted immediately. Only 3% believed that the Armed Forces would be a more comfortable environment if gays were accepted; 84% disagreed (Copley, 1996; Bowcott, 1996). Opposition to a more relaxed policy was strongest in the Army and weakest in the Air Force (Harnden, 1996), and women were less resistant than men to removal of the ban (Shrimsley, 1996). Greater hostility toward male homosexuality than to lesbianism was also reported (Bowcott, 1996). More than two-thirds of the men felt that admitting gay and lesbian soldiers would damage recruiting, and a similar amount said they would not willingly serve under those circumstances (Shrimsley, 1996). Some complaints about bias in the survey and the methodology were, however, registered at the time (Bowcott, 1996; Bowcott, Stewart and Zinn, 1996).

In addition, the committee received 639 letters about the policy; 587 of those received, or 92%, opposed changing the regulations (Bowcott, 1996). The letters included comments like those expressed by a warrant officer in the Royal Marines who said, “Men don’t like taking showers with men who like taking showers with men”, and those from a senior aircraftsman who warned that, “Homosexuals would definitely get beaten up” (cited in the Daily Telegraph, 1996). A lieutenant in the Royal Marines argued that:

We do not want a citizen army with the same weaknesses as Continental forces. The role of British Forces is to mount successful operation as directed, not to be a medium of social change. (cited in the Electronic Telegraph, 1996)

However, not all of the comments were negative. For example, one lieutenant in the Army wrote, “When I go to war, I would rather have alongside me a guy [sic] who shoots straight, than a straight who shoots crooked” (cited in the Daily Telegraph, 1996).

The committee’s recommendation for the continuation of the ban came even though “…committee members who visited foreign armed forces, most of which permit homosexuality, were told that the admission of gays had made little practical difference to operational efficiency” (Gilligan, 1995). This view was reinforced by the comments of a Canadian officer who said that British researchers told him that, “We believe we could change our policy, based on your experience, and what we heard in terms of candid comments from former commanders” (Belkin and McNichol, 2000). The British team also told the CF official, however, that they did not believe a more inclusive policy would be politically feasible in Britain at that time[29].

A legal advisor for the Ministry of Defense also warned military officials that the British Forces were likely to lose their case with the European Court of Human Rights, and that they would have a better case if they “mov[ed] to a compromise solution, eg. [sic] no open homosexuality” (cited in The Lawyer Online, 1996a). But the armed forces minister and the three service chiefs of staff were said to strongly support a continuation of the exclusion of homosexuals (Bowcott, Stewart and Zinn, 1996; Copley, 1996). Instead, defense ministers ordered a relaxation of the ban, which Armed Forces Minister Soames described as the “softly softly” approach (Gilligan and Wastell, 1996). Military police were instructed not to actively search for gay and lesbian soldiers; they were only to act if a problem was drawn to their attention. The defense ministers also made it clear that overzealous investigation, surveillance and harassment would no longer be tolerated (Gilligan and Wastell, 1996)[30].

Despite the recommendations of the HPAT report and the relaxed approach, it appears that over the next three years ministers and service chiefs behind the scenes were adjusting to the possibility that they would lose the case of the former servicemembers in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) (Sylvester and Thomson, 1998; Carrell, 1999) [31]. The Defense Minister announced in 1998 that the ban “in principle” should be lifted, and Rank Outsiders reported the same year that they were consulted on a draft code of conduct for all military personnel, heterosexual and homosexual (Gilligan, 1998). In a related case, the European Court ruled in July 1999 that discrimination against transsexuals fell under the definition of “sex discrimination” in the European Convention. The ruling undermined part of the Armed Forces’ defense in the European Court case, which, in accordance with the British Sex Discrimination Act, argued that neither transsexuals nor homosexuals suffered from sex discrimination as long as transsexuals or homosexuals of both sexes were treated identically. On August 2, 1999, it was reported that transsexuals would henceforth be permitted to serve in the Armed Forces (Davies and Jones, 1999). The decision was criticized by the Conservative shadow defense secretary, Iain Duncan-Smith, who accused the Government of having a “politically correct agenda” and seeking to “end by stealth” the ban on homosexual service (Jones, 1999). The Ministry of Defense continued to discharge homosexual service personnel, however, and the last gay servicemember was dismissed from the Armed Forces on September 24, 1999 (Norton-Taylor, 1999).

On September 27^th, the European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously that the ban on homosexual military service violated the privacy rights of the plaintiffs. The seventy cases being investigated by the Armed Forces were immediately put on hold (Norton-Taylor, 1999a; Cullen, 1999)[32]. Civil servants suggested that a new code of conduct could be put in place earlier than 2001, presumably because considerable work had already been done on it. The Conservative Party signaled that it might try to overturn the policy change if it were returned to power (Shrimsley, 2000).

A week after taking office, the new Secretary of State for Defense Geoffrey Hoon set aside “at least £4m” to cover pending compensation claims by homosexual ex-servicemembers (Syal and Gilligan, 1999). The more important question, however, was what model to choose for the new army regulations. There was considerable opposition from both gay groups and services chiefs to basing the regulations on the American model, which was seen as “a disaster”; services chiefs saw the Dutch and Israeli options as “too liberal” (Sparrow, 1999). Stonewall recommended the Australian regulations, which bans heterosexual and homosexual public displays of affection, as a possible model (Waugh, 1999). In mid-December, Hoon announced that the new code would be published the following month, and that it would govern “sex not sexuality” - a reference to the Australian rules.

With respect to the model that was chosen, Michael Codner of the Royal United Services Institute explained:

I think both sides of the debate saw “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ as something which hadn’t worked, which was unworkable and hypocritical. The internal advice given to service chiefs by the civilian civil service was in favor of another model.

…But the Australian model was pushed strongly by Australian service chiefs. Their defense attaches were also very proactive in pushing the success of the Australian option. And I think the British service chiefs saw some logic to it. The two forces have a similar structure and ethos. (Personal Communication, September 26, 2000)

On January 12^th, the Secretary of State for Defense announced the lifting of the ban to the Commons. He declared that the European Court judgement made the ban “not legally sustainable” and proclaimed that a new code of conduct governing personal relationships, based on that of the Australian armed forces, would be introduced. No legislation was required to effect this change, which went into effect immediately. Discharged homosexuals were also invited to reapply for their jobs (Waugh, 2000). Shadow Defense Minister Iain Duncan-Smith voiced “regret”, and he said that if the Conservatives won the next election they would review the decision and allow military chiefs to decide (Waugh, 2000). On that day a sailor became the first homosexual servicemember to come out openly to colleagues (Fleet, 2000).

Since the January 2000 decision, the enactment of the Human Rights Act in Britain has resulted in the replication of the European Court decision by a domestic court. A former RAF officer won an employment tribunal appeal against the Ministry of Defense in September, after it was ruled that the officer suffered sex discrimination in his dismissal for homosexuality (Robertson, 2000). The original plaintiffs in the European Court case were also awarded more than L400,000 as compensation for loss of future earnings, the emotional and psychological impact of the investigations, and court costs (Dyer, 2000; BBC News, 2000). A number of other suits are presently pending.

VII. BRITAIN’S PRESENT POLICY CONCERNING SEXUAL MINORITIES

In their development of a new policy, the Ministry of Defense emphasized the need for: 1) compliance with the ECHR ruling, 2) regulations that were non-discriminatory; 3) the preservation of operational effectiveness, 4) accordance with the general requirements of the military, and 5) protection of individual rights under the Human Rights Act (Ministry of Defense, 2000). Homosexuality is no longer a bar to military service. Gay and lesbian soldiers are not, however, eligible for married accommodations, spousal pension or other partnership rights. In addition, a code of social conduct establishes rules of behavior that apply equally to heterosexuals and homosexuals. Soldiers, regardless of sexual orientation or sex, are prohibited from engaging in social behavior that undermines, or may potentially undermine, the trust and cohesion, and therefore the operational effectiveness, of the Services. Enumerated inappropriate behavior includes: unwelcome physical or verbal sexual attention, overfamiliarity with the spouses of other service personnel, displays of affection which might cause offense to others, taking sexual advantage of subordinates, and behavior which damages the marriage or personal relationship of other service personnel. The code of conduct further covers other types of “social misbehavior” that have not been enumerated. Discretion is left up to the commanding officer to determine if behavior constitutes a threat to the cohesion of the unit or the military command chain. Abuse of authority, trust or rank, or taking advantage of a person’s separation, are deemed particularly serious types of misconduct (Ministry of Defense, 2000a)[33].

The new guidelines for social conduct are general and involve considerable discretion. The code therefore provides a “service test” for commanding officers to use in their assessment of the need to “intervene in the personal lives of personnel” (Ministry of Defense, 2000a, p. 1). Commanding officers must consider each case in light of the following question:

Have the actions or behavior of an individual adversely impacted or are they likely to impact on the efficiency or operational effectiveness of the Service? (Ministry of Defense, 2000a, p. 1)

In the event of an affirmative answer, commanders are instructed to take prompt and decisive action to minimize damage to the effectiveness of the unit. If the misconduct is sufficiently serious, commanders may institute immediate administrative or punitive action. Such action may include a formal warning, official censure, the posting of the parties involved, or other disciplinary action. If the behavior is sufficiently serious, or if the servicemember has a history of social misconduct, termination of service may occur (Ministry of Defense, 2000a).

The Ministry of Defense also issued guidelines and speaking notes for commanding officers to help them explain and enforce the new policy. The speaking notes emphasize that the lifting of the ban brings the Armed Forces into greater concordance with the general society. A person’s sexual orientation is to be considered a private matter, and every servicemember has a right to personal privacy. The speaking notes exhort service personnel to “[r]espect that right, and do not try to make their private business your concern” (Ministry of Defense, 2000c, p.2) Commanders were further advised to stress the continuity of the policy:

This change is not a major issue, and you should not make it into one. There have always been homosexuals serving in the Armed Forces. We do not expect that this change will result in a significant increase in the number of homosexuals coming into the Service. (Ministry of Defense, 2000c, p.2)

Continuity is emphasized with respect to the new code of social conduct as well. The speaking notes explain that the code “largely reflects existing policies” and “does not mean a tightening up on heterosexual relationships” (Ministry of Defense, 2000c, p. 2)

The notes for commanding officers state that their actions should be guided by the following principles:

a. Sexual orientation is regarded as a private matter for the individual.

b. Knowledge of an individual’s sexual orientation is not a basis for discrimination.

c. Incidents which involve the possible commission of civil or military offences, or which come to a Commanding Officer’s attention through a formal complaint, should be investigated and dealt with in accordance with Service disciplinary or administrative procedures.

d. The Service Test … should be applied when there is any doubt about the impact on operational effectiveness of any particular incident.

e. The Armed Forces value the unique contribution which every individual makes to operational effectiveness, regardless of their sexual orientation.

f. The Armed Forces … will only intervene in the private lives of individuals where it is necessary in the interests of preserving operational effectiveness.

g. The new policy makes no moral judgements about an individual’s sexual orientation.

h. There is no place in the Armed Forces for harassment, bullying or victimization.

i. Commanders have a duty of care towards all those under their command. (Ministry of Defense, 2000d, p. 1)

The guidelines also include a list of questions and answers that commanding officers might encounter under the new policy. The list provides responses to such situations as: what to do regarding someone who wants to ‘out’ themselves[34]; whether homosexual personnel will be able to bring their partners to ‘semi-official’ functions[35]; how they should handle a situation in which a person is unwillingly ‘outed’[36]; whether an individual has a legal right to refuse to share accommodations with a homosexual[37]; and how to deal with an extra-marital relationship between heterosexual servicemembers[38]. With respect to a question about protecting young soldiers from predatory homosexuals, the guidelines declare that “It would be wrong to assume that homosexuals are predatory” and remind commanding officers that they must be “particularly alert to ensure young people are protected, regardless of their sex” (Ministry of Defense, 2000d, p. 5). Commanding officers are advised to remember that an open display of sexual behavior of any kind can cause offense, and to respond quickly to defuse situations before they spread (Ministry of Defense, 2000d).

When the new policy was announced by Secretary of State for Defense Geoff Hoon on January 12, 2000, he highlighted the fact that the chiefs of staff were completely involved in the creation of the new policy and endorsed the changes. Secretary Hoon stated that the code would apply to all members of the Forces, regardless of “Service, rank, gender or sexual orientation” (Ministry of Defense, 2000b, p. 2). He further stressed that the code complemented existing policies, including “zero tolerance for harassment, discrimination and bullying” (Ministry of Defense, 2000b, p. 2). As for the use of the service test, Secretary Hoon declared that:

Commanders will have to apply this Service Test through the exercise of their good judgement, discretion and common sense – the essence of command and the effective management of people. (Ministry of Defense, 2000b, p. 2)

Shifting gears from the public statements in support of the ban before the European Court ruling, Chief of the Defense Staff General Sir Charles Guthrie went on record at the time of the announcement of the new code of conduct to say that lifting the ban was likely to lead to some difficult situations for commanding officers, who would be required to decide if conduct was damaging to a unit’s operational effectiveness. He added, however, that “As CDS (Chief of the Defense Staff), I don’t believe that the operational efficiency of the Services will be affected, although I’m not saying we won’t have some difficult incidents”. He acknowledged that some people would still be against the ban “because they are homophobic or on religious grounds”, and that his assessment of the new policy differed from that of former service chiefs and ministers. But he added that “times have changed”, and he doubted that the change in policy would have any effect on recruiting (Evans, 2000). General Guthrie characterized the new code of conduct as “sensible and pragmatic” and said that it would be up to commanding officers to reassure their subordinates. “We think we can make it work”. (Evans, 2000)

Discussions on the code of social conduct and the importance of equal treatment for heterosexuals and homosexuals have since been integrated into training at the Tri-Service Equal Opportunities Training Center, the training site for the Services’ Equal Opportunity Advisors (Ministry of Defense, 2000c). In February, the Royal Air Force became the first service to include tolerance toward homosexuality in its officer training courses. The training course discusses the issue during the “beliefs and values” session, which is conducted by chaplains and staff. Officer candidates are informed that homosexuality is compatible with service and does not damage team morale. They are also taught that overt displays of affection, whether heterosexual or homosexual, threaten team discipline (Butcher, 2000). The other Services have since followed suit.

In October, 2000 it was reported that a naval lieutenant-commander had won

the right to some of the partnership benefits previously reserved for heterosexual personnel. The companion of Lieutenant-Commander Craig Jones will be flying out with other naval spouses to visit the HMS Northumberland in the Mediterranean. Spousal flights are subsidized by interest-free loans from the Navy. Jones’ partner has also been invited to a black-tie dinner and other mess dinners on shore and aboard the ship (Gilligan, 2000).

VIII. INITIAL ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS OF THE CHANGE IN POLICY

Six months after the lifting of the ban and the enactment of the new social code of conduct, the Ministry of Defense conducted its own assessment of the policy change. Commanders from each of the Services were asked to comment on a variety of issues related to the policy change and on developments arising from it. The assessment was for internal review only, and the resulting report was not released to the public. The Ministry of Defense report therefore constitutes the best evidence to date on the effect of the military’s new policy. It conducted a comprehensive managerial review with access to all relevant data. Further, since it was not intended for a civilian audience, the report was not written with an eye toward shifting the public opinion or influencing policy debates. The Ministry of Defense provided the researchers of this report with a summation of the contents of the internal assessment. This marks the first time that the findings of the report have been released to the public.

The appraisal by the Ministry of Defense depicts the policy change as an unqualified success. No problems associated with the new policy were reported. It found that both the lifting of the ban on homosexual soldiers and the new social code of conduct have been effectively instituted. It also states that there have been no significant difficulties in the transition to the new policy, that servicemembers have come to widely accept the policy change, and that the implementation has gone surprisingly well. Given the success, the internal review found that no further changes in regulations or enforcement were needed:

… [T]he change in policy has generally been hailed as a solid achievement. It has been introduced smoothly with fewer problems than might have been expected and no changes either to the policy, the Code of Social Conduct, or the content of our training courses are planned at the present time. (Ministry of Defense, 2000e, p. 2)

The Ministry of Defense determined that the policy change has not affected recruitment levels. The three Services “reported that the revised policy on homosexuality had had no discernible impact, either positive or negative, on recruitment” (Ministry of Defense, 2000e, p. 2). The evaluation did, however, find that the more inclusive policy had positively affected their access to recruiting fairs. College recruiting fairs that used to forbid participation by the military have reversed themselves in the wake of the lifting of the ban:

Interestingly, some areas that had previously closed to the Forces, such as Student Union “Fresher’s Fairs”, are now allowing access to the Services because of what is seen to be a more enlightened approach. (Ministry of Defense, 2000e, p.2)

Because sexual orientation is now seen to be a private matter, the British Armed Forces will not set any quotas for the recruitment of sexual minorities and will not monitor recruitment levels of sexual minorities. No records will be kept if recruits volunteer the information that they are homosexual.

The report acknowledges that the policy change was not popular with some military personnel before its enactment, as some servicemembers originally expressed apprehension about the lifting of the ban:

Within the Services, the change in policy was accepted as inevitable, although there were some expressions of ‘political correctness’ having gone too far. The majority of initial misgivings were in regard to the practical aspects of implementation and its consequences, often centered on shared accommodation. (Ministry of Defense, 2000e, p.2)

Such misgivings appear, however, to have been short-lived. After the new policy had been in place for only six months, the Ministry of Defense was able to report that service personnel had adjusted well to the lifting of the ban:

Over the longer term the feeling has been generated that there is widespread acceptance of the new policy. … Generally people have demonstrated a mature and pragmatic approach which has allowed the policy to succeed. (Ministry of Defense, 2000e, p. 2)

Service personnel have gotten along well and adjusted quickly to the policy change; the actual inclusion of homosexual servicemembers has resulted in surprisingly little reaction. The report also found that harassment of gay and lesbian soldiers had not been a problem since the new social conduct code had been instituted. There were “no reported difficulties of note concerning homophobic behavior amongst Service Personnel” (Ministry of Defense, 2000e, p. 2).

The evaluation by the Ministry of Defense suggests that the success of the new policy was in large part due to the non-discriminatory nature of the Code of Social Conduct. The Code’s emphasis on behavior allows the military to address problematic behavior without resorting to discriminatory policies or restricting whole classes of people:

The Code of Social Conduct has been very well received and has been found to be a useful guide for commanding officers in dealing with all issues surrounding personal relationship and behavior, going wider than just homosexual issues. (Ministry of Defense, 2000e, p.2)

Because the focus has been placed on behavior instead of sexual orientation, sexual orientation has not become a source of antagonism as some had feared. Gay service personnel know that they have the code of conduct to back them up in the event of harassment or bullying. And all servicemembers know that they have recourse to complain if they witness inappropriate comments or actions. The report remarks on the noteworthy lack of focus by service personnel about the issue of sexual orientation:

[Homosexuality] has not been an issue of great debate, in part because of the underlying principle, embodied in the Code of Social Conduct, that sexual orientation is now regarded as a private matter. In fact there has been a marked lack of reaction. Discussion has rather been concerned with freedom of individual choice and exercising personal responsibility across the board, rather than a focus just on sexual orientation. (Ministry of Defense, 2000e, p.2)

In arguments for the continuation of the ban, military officials suggested that friction between heterosexual and homosexual servicemembers could result in distrust and offense among colleagues and even threaten operational effectiveness. In contrast, the Ministry of Defense’s own internal assessment of the policy after six months suggests that heterosexual and homosexual soldiers alike have responded well to the change in policy. In spite of the concerns raised in the years and months prior to the lifting of the ban, no major problems have so far resulted from the policy change. At the request of the House of Commons Defense Committee, the Ministry of Defense will conduct another review of the policy in two years. But the report indicates that at this stage military officials believe the new policy has been successfully implemented.

Since the ban has been lifted, several newspaper articles have recorded military reactions to the policy change[39]. British newspapers have reported the assessment of Rear-Admiral Burnell-Nugent and two resignations over the policy. In addition, researchers for this report interviewed eight Armed Forces officials and two retired Armed Forces officers. The officials include: the director of personnel policy for the Ministry of Defense, a commander with Naval Personnel and Service Conditions who was involved in the writing of the new policy, a lieutenant colonel with Army Public Relations, a major with the Army Training and Recruiting Agency, a squadron leader with the Air Force Engineer Liaison Recruiting Team, an official with the Personnel Management Agency of the Air Force, an official with the Ministry of Defense Press Office, and a Whitehall source with knowledge of the policy’s implementation. The retired officers were not apprised of the effect of the transition and were interviewed for background information.

Nine months after the ban was lifted, the assistant chief of the Navy staff, Rear-Admiral James Burnell-Nugent declared publicly that the change in policy had caused fewer problems than the inclusion ten years ago of women at sea. The Rear-Admiral stated that the removal of the ban had caused less difficulty than many of his colleagues had expected. He further stated that the ruling had raised some issues about accommodations aboard ships but that it had otherwise not caused serious problems. “I think it has caused less of a ruffle than the issue of women at sea did 10 years ago. That is not to say it is not without impact” (Paterson, 2000). The Rear-Admiral also commented that, “Although some did not welcome the change of policy, it has not caused any great degree of difficulty” (Paterson, 2000). Rear-Admiral Burnell-Nugent added:

There are issues to do with sharing accommodation and so on, which we shall deal with using normal management mechanisms. I am not saying everybody is happy with it, but on the whole it has not caused a great upset. (Paterson, 2000)

A straw poll of cadets immediately following the change in policy “revealed an already relaxed attitude to the issue” (Butcher, 2000a). One cadet responded, “It might just be that we belong to a different generation but I do not see it as a problem” (Butcher, 2000a). This attitude was shared by most of her fellow cadets. All those polled agreed that it was possible for homosexuals to serve in the RAF if their professional work was not influenced by their sexuality. One male cadet did say, however, that the presence of a gay or lesbian in a soldier in a unit could damage the team’s morale. “I personally do not have a problem with homosexuals but I can see it being a problem if everyone is cooped up together” (Butcher, 2000a)[40].

Two officers publicly resigned in the wake of the lifting of the ban. Brigadier Pat Lawless, the Deputy Commander of the Joint Helicopter Command, announced in January 2000 that he was resigning because the ban was lifted without adequate consideration for the military rationale for preserving it. Brigadier Lawless, who reported that he was “very sad to leave”, stated that he “couldn’t reconcile my strongly held moral and military convictions as a soldier and a citizen with the Government’s decision to lift the ban on homosexuals” (Wright, 2000). A friend of Lawless stated that “[Cdr. Lawless] was not taking this decision because he personally has a problem with homosexuals. He saw it as a decision foisted on the Armed Forces for no good military reason” (Butcher, 2000).

Commander Colin Douglas, a senior naval commander who led an air squadron in Bosnia and was director of flying at the Fleet Air Arm’s Culdrose air station, also resigned in January because he felt that policy decisions were being made for political reasons instead of military ones. Cdr. Douglas said that the decision on homosexual inclusion was “the final straw”. He added, “There is plenty of sound military sense against lifting the ban, but the decision was taken for political and legal reasons” (Butcher, 2000). There have been no other public announcements of resignations due to the lifting of the ban.

An article on desertion and recruitment issues in June 2000 commented that the opening of the military to gays and lesbians and of combat positions to women would hopefully increase recruitment levels. Problems associated with desertion included bullying, harassment during initiation rites, and an inability of the military to successfully deal with soldiers far away from home when family problems such as terminal illness and marital strain develop (Burke, 2000)[41]. Problems in recruiting levels were first made public in 1996. Articles discussing recruitment problems cited the number of foreign operations and the number of humanitarian missions, as well as the family turbulence that results from long absences or overseas postings (Schoefield, 2000). The lifting of the ban was not mentioned as a source of problems.

Two months after the Ministry of Defense’s internal appraisal, the responses of military officials interviewed for this report confirm its findings. The transition to the new policy has gone surprisingly well, and there have been no major problems to date. A Whitehall source who had access to the original, unabridged report emphasizes the definitiveness of its conclusions:

The assessment showed that there has been no impact at all. The report looked at all aspects, operational effectiveness, unit cohesion, and there has been no impact. At the end of the day, operational effectiveness is the critical matter, and there has been no effect at all. There haven’t been any disciplinary problems. There have only been one or two minor incidents, and they have been handled individually. The whole thing has gone a lot better than people had expected. (Personal Communication, October 9 and 11, 2000)

None of the officials that we spoke to knew of any evidence or had heard of any that suggested any significant difficulties that had arisen as a result of the policy change. No one had heard of any problems with resignations[42]. None of the officials interviewed knew of any evidence to suggest that recruitment rates or training completion had been affected. There have been no major problems with harassment or gay-bashing. Military officials interviewed for this report affirm that the lifting of the ban has largely been a non-issue.

This is not to imply that all servicemembers approved of the new policy before it was implemented. Many soldiers maintain anti-gay attitudes and worried about how the lifting of the ban would affect them. While complaints about the sharing of facilities with homosexual in particular were vociferous before the policy change, such protests were surprisingly short-lived. Commander Cooper, who worked on the new social code of conduct, explains:

The prime concern, and really the only one raised by people in the run-up to the publication of this policy, which came into effect in January of this year, was sharing accommodations. … straight chaps and straight girls might not necessarily like having to share living, changing and washing facilities with people of another sexual orientation. … We’ve taken the view that we will not separate out homosexuals and give them separate living accommodations. Now I would characterize the reaction to that as being very short-term complaints, very loud but short-lived. And as far as I know, the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom has only lost three people who have resigned over this issue. (Personal Communication, October 13, 2000)

Military officials interviewed for this report were also not aware of any indications that the new policy had negatively affected recruit training completion rates or that there had been any training problems related to the lifting of the ban (Hodges, Personal Communication, October 10, 2000; Cooper, Personal Communication, October 13, 2000; Peebles, Personal Communication, October 17, 2000). Service personnel have responded well to the new code of social conduct and the equitable premise of all servicemembers’ responsibility to act appropriately. As was suggested by the Ministry of Defense’s internal report, more discussion appears to have been raised about exercising personal responsibility generally than about the specific issue of homosexuality. A Whitehall source explains:

In the commanding officers’ course, they go over the code of social conduct. Homosexuality doesn’t even come up anymore – it’s no longer an issue. In the Equal Opportunities training, a whole raft of issues are discussed, and race and gender are bigger issues for us. There is one morning in the training where homosexuality gets discussed along with many other issues. One person in six months has argued vociferously against it, and that’s it. Everyone else’s attitude is to let people alone. No one wants to flaunt their sexuality, so let people have it. (Personal Communication, October 9 and 11, 2000)

Incidents of harassment or sexual misconduct related to sexual orientation by either heterosexual or homosexual soldiers have also not been a problem since the new policy was implemented in January. None of the military officials interviewed related a single case of gay-bashing or assault related to sexual orientation. Lieutenant Colonel Hodges confirmed with a colleague at the Central Discipline Office there have been no incidents related to sexual orientation reported to that office since the ban on homosexual soldiers was lifted. He added: “The change in policy has been a complete non-event” (Personal Communication, October 9 and November 2, 2000).

Although precise data is not available, there are no indications that the policy change has affected recruitment levels (Bagley, Personal Communication, October 13, 2000; Fuller, Personal Communication, October 17, 2000; Payne, Personal Communication, October 9, 2000). The Armed Forces does not ask about sexual orientation when recruiting, so the military does not possess any statistics specifically concerning either increases in the number of homosexual recruits or decisions not to enlist because of the policy change. Further, so many factors affect recruiting that it is difficult to isolate the effects of one. But there have been no signs, from the experiences of recruiters or assessments within the Ministry of Defense, that recruiting numbers have decreased substantially as a result of the lifting of the ban. A Ministry of Defense official states, “Certainly recruitment hasn’t dropped dramatically – recruitment is quite buoyant at present” (Barnard, Personal Communication, October 13, 2000). After several years of recruiting shortages, the last two years have witnessed the fulfillment of recruiting targets (Hodges, Personal Communication, October 9 and November 2, 2000). Paul Barnard adds, “Nothing drastic has happened in terms of recruiting or anything else” (Personal Communication, October 13, 2000).

Military leaders emphasize that behavior rather than sexual orientation is what ultimately matters to the men and women in the Armed Services. As long as people do their jobs and contribute effectively to the teamwork of their units, individual differences in opinion or in their personal lives are not considered relevant. The new policy’s focus on behavior rather than on personal attributes has allowed heterosexual and homosexual soldiers alike to maintain their focus on the jobs at hand. It is the emphasis on effective teamwork that Lieutenant Colonel Hodges believes is ultimately behind the success of the policy change:

There has been absolutely no reaction to the change in policy regarding homosexuals within the military. It’s just been accepted. In the military, it’s important to fit in and be a member of the team. As regards homosexuals, if someone were acting ‘camp’, they would not fit into the team. But if they are discrete [sic], it doesn’t matter. Our great strength as an Army is that we treat everyone [as] an individual who contributes to the team. We’ve won three recent wars – Sierra Leone, Kosovo and East Timor because we place a lot of importance on personal responsibility, down to the lowest level. Everyone has strengths and known weaknesses, and everyone is given responsibility. Your sexuality doesn’t matter as long as you act as a member of the team. (Personal Communication, October 9 and November 2, 2000)

For those heterosexual soldiers who feared the new policy would bring major changes in interpersonal relationships, the continuity has been a relief. Since the lifting of the ban, heterosexual servicemembers have discovered that the Services after the policy change looks basically like the Services under the old policy. Paul Barnard explains:

And the media likes scare stories – about showers and what have you. A lot of people were worried that they would have to share body heat in close quarters or see two men being affectionate, and they would feel uncomfortable. But it has proved at first look that it’s not an issue. (Personal Communication, October 13, 2000)

Now that the court case has been resolved, people have been able to effectively move past the controversy. There have been no major surprises, no radical or inappropriate behavior. Heterosexual and homosexual soldiers alike continue to focus on the primary task at hand: doing the job that they signed up for. Paul Barnard adds: “It’s gone better than a lot of people thought it would. It’s almost gone unnoticed.” (Personal Communication, October 13 and November 6, 2000)

Military officials also suggest that servicemembers were better prepared to adapt to the lifting of the ban than many military commanders expected. Both the on-the-ground reality of homosexual service and more accepting attitudes in general about homosexuality among the young were raised as partial explanations for the relatively tranquil transition. Homosexual service personnel have been a part of the Armed Forces since long before the policy change occurred – a fact that was not denied by military officials even during the legal battle. Barnard argues that for many heterosexual servicemembers, the admission by a colleague of his or her sexual orientation in the wake of the new policy has not come as a surprise:

A lot of gay people have gone about like before and not said anything. But in most cases with those that have said that they’re gay, it was probably known already. Close associates who worked with them probably already knew, but they kept quiet about it, because they didn’t want to get the person in trouble. So often it hasn’t been a surprise. It just has not been an issue. (Personal Communication, October 13, 2000)

Commander Cooper in turn emphasizes the more liberal attitudes of younger service men and women:

We have a ground-breaking social policy here. … But in broad terms, I don’t think we’re shy about the fact that there has been an atmosphere of resigned acceptance, particularly amongst the younger people in the Navy. … There is a more relaxed attitude among younger people towards those of a different sexual orientation, and by and large it has been, therefore, a non-issue; it really has. (Personal Communication, October 13, 2000)

In interviewing military officials for this report, the theme of a lack of response was repeated. Officials emphasized that the policy transition had occurred more smoothly than expected, that any criticism to the lifting of the ban quickly died away, and that the anticipated problems have not developed. People on all sides of the issue have behaved responsibly and respectfully. And while problems may still develop at a later date, many Service officials are genuinely surprised by how agreeable the transition has been. A number of interviewed officials commented on the disjuncture between the predicted difficulties and the reality of the change. The Ministry of Defense Director of Personnel Policy states:

And [the] code of conduct seems to have been accepted and applied generally around the Armed Forces, and we’ve had very few real problems that have emerged, and people seem to have, slightly surprisingly, settled down and accepted the current arrangements. And we don’t really have the problems that we thought we’d have. (Fuller, Personal Communication, October 17, 2000)

Peebles concurs:

As far as I am aware, the rank and file airmen and airwomen have accepted the revised policy. The anticipated tide of criticism from some quarters within the Service was completely unfounded. (Personal Communication, October 17, 2000)

And Commander Cooper adds:

We now have chaps at sea that people now know are homosexuals – there are very few – we’re talking about a handful of people who have come out, and there wasn’t a [problem] coming out at all. And our youngsters have just taken it in stride. So it’s a major non-issue, which has come as a considerable surprise. (Personal Communication, October 13, 2000)

Given the fact that the new policy has been in place for less than a year, insufficient time has passed for any quantitative or in-depth external study of the policy change. Nonetheless, researchers for this report felt that it was important to canvass relevant observers outside of the military to further assess the impact of the lifting of the ban on homosexual soldiers. Academics, journalists and non-profit organization representatives[43] who have been following the controversy concerning sexual minorities in the military, or who are knowledgeable about British military personnel issues more generally, provide an independent check to the information provided by the Armed Forces. The outside experts may be aware of issues that have not been brought to the attention of the upper echelon of military commanders, they can provide a different perspective on events, and they may be more critical of the policies or the culture of the British Services than commanders.

Researchers for this report spoke with six respected academics and journalists who have been commentators on the military policy concerning homosexuality since before the ban was lifted. The interviewees included: Dr. Gwyn Harries-Jenkins, a professor of military sociology at the University of Hull; Dr. Christopher Dandeker, a professor of military sociology and head of the Department of War Studies at King’s College; Dr. Hew Strachan, professor of military history at the University of Glasgow; and Edmund Hall, former journalist for the Sunday Times, Independent and the Evening Standard, and the author of the most widely-read book on the subject, We Can’t Even March Straight. Professor Harries-Jenkins and Dandeker specialize in military personnel issues and have written specifically about homosexuality in the Armed Forces. Researchers also interviewed Joan Heggie, a doctoral candidate at the University of York who is presently working on a dissertation on lesbian service personnel in Britain, and Tim Butcher, a reporter for the Daily Telegraph who has covered the topic for that paper since 1995. The researchers asked these and other contacts if they knew of any other prominent scholars or commentators who should be reached for this report; we could uncover no other principal sources on this subject.

The academics and journalists contacted for this report agree that it is still too soon to determine what the long-term consequences of the policy would be. The information available so far does, however, suggest reason for cautious optimism. None of the respondents knew of any major problems that have occurred in the wake of the policy change. And the (admittedly scant) information that they have heard about indicates a relatively smooth transition. Professor Dandeker states:

It’s too early to say, but the reports I have heard say … that so far there are few problems and indeed, perhaps less than the ones arising from gender integration. (Personal Communication, September 20, 2000)

Professor Harries-Jenkins also agrees that insufficient time had passed to definitively assess the outcome of the new policy, but he does add that “press statements (‘an informed source’) suggest a slight decrease in the incidence of harassment” (Personal Communication, October 16, 2000). Joan Heggie argues that the relative lack of news about the transition is itself a sign that no major problems had occurred. Since many military and political officials had been highly antagonistic to the removal of the ban, any sign of significant problems would have created a public furor. Heggie declares:

But there has been no feedback the new policy is not working. Certainly the fears of massive resignations or sexual harassment have not come true. (Personal Communication, October 2 and 16, 2000)

Professor Dandeker, Heggie and Hall all suggest that the relatively smooth transition may have been due in part to the fact that most gay and lesbian soldiers presently serving in the military have remained quiet about their sexual orientation and their private lives. Professor Dandeker and Heggie argue that such low visibility most likely stems from continued bias against homosexuality by most heterosexual soldiers. Professor Dandeker explains:

Most expect gay personnel to continue to be extremely discreet until attitudes within the services change further, and that this is an acceptable price to pay for achieving a lifting of the ban on personnel serving simply because of their homosexual orientation. (Personal Communication, September 20, 2000)

Heggie adds:

Even though the situation is better, soldiers don’t want to set themselves up for a fall. Even though the rules have changed, not everyone feels comfortable. (Personal Communication, October 2 and 16, 2000)

Hall, however, argues that gay and lesbian service personnel were unlikely to be particularly conspicuous even in the most accepting environment:

When the ban was lifted, I think that many people who had been serving quietly in the armed forces breathed a sigh of relief. Gay people who go into the armed forces tend to be conservative in their politics, and reserved about their private lives. After the ban was lifted, you didn’t find these people indulging in ostentatious out behavior. (Personal Communication, September 25, 2000)

Professors Harries-Jenkins and Dandeker, both noted experts on the British military in general, also concur that the issue of homosexual service in the military was minor given the priorities of the military at present. Like many other Western militaries in the wake of the Cold War, the British military has had to confront the effects of a shift in priorities and the extension of peacekeeping missions with shrinking resources. Professor Harries-Jenkins states that homosexuality “is a minor issue in the light of major problems for recruitment and retention caused by overstretch, role uncertainty, turbulence and rates of remuneration” (Personal Communication, October 16, 2000). Professor Dandeker also cites overstretch, recruitment and retention as primary problems presently facing the British military, and he adds that the size of the defense budget is an additional source of concern (Personal Communication, September 20, 2000).

Echoing Rear-Admiral Burnell-Nugent, Professors Dandeker and Harries-Jenkins suggest that the integration of women into the Armed Services is perhaps a more vexing personnel problem than that of including homosexuals. Professor Harries-Jenkins declares:

At present, the major [personnel] issue is the political policy that women should be recruited to direct combat on the ground posts in armor, infantry and special forces units. Whilst it is possible to substitute males in terms of race and sexual preference, there is a strong body of opinion in the military which questions the ability of women to serve in such posts. The lifting of the ban on gays may or may not have effects upon good order and discipline but these can be covered by regulations. (Personal Communication, October 16, 2000)

Both Professors did, however, append caveats to this assessment. Professor Dandeker contends that it “remains to be seen” whether the integration of women and sexual minorities will “interact and lead to difficulties” (Personal Communication, September 20, 2000). Professor Harries-Jenkins adds that the legislative approval of gay marriages or the “active promotion of the rights of homosexuals” would “alarm service chiefs” (Personal Communication, October 16, 2000).

Finally, Dandeker, Heggie and Butcher all caution that while the rules may have changed, fundamental attitudes have not. Many military personnel remain opposed to the change in policy, including a number of commanders. And a large number of those who are resigned to the new regulations continue to view homosexuality in an unfavorable light. Given the discretion placed with commanding officers in interpreting what constitutes social misconduct, such anti-gay feelings could result in harsh restriction of homosexuals. Professor Dandeker explains:

It should be pointed out that the ‘lifting of the ban’ is not quite right. Integration of open homosexuals is problematic and remains so under the new policy. … Much will depend on how commanding officers use discretion and how much gay personnel wish to be discreet about their orientation as well as scrupulously careful about their behavior both on and off duty. (Personal Communication, September 20, 2000)

Heggie also warns that “the rules of conduct are so loose that they allow discrimination by individual commanders” (Personal Communication, October 2 and 16, 2000). How the implementation of the code of social conduct proceeds in the coming months will have a considerable effect on the ultimate success of the new policy. Because gay-bashing is punishable by administrative discharge, however, Butcher expects that “the quality of life for the average homosexual servicemember [will] go up considerably” (Personal Communication, August 8, 2000).

Researchers for this report also talked with representatives from relevant major non-governmental organizations to determine their assessments of how the policy change was proceeding. We contacted the Christian Institute, the major NGO opposing the new policy; TORCHe, the gay rights group of the Conservative Party; the Royal United Service Institute (RUSI), an independent military think-tank; Stonewall and Outrage!, the two primary gay-rights groups in Britain; and Rank Outsiders, an organization that promotes the rights of gay and lesbian servicemembers. Rank Outsiders has been monitoring the inclusion of gay and lesbian service personnel closely since the policy change was announced in January.

Colin Hart, the executive director for the Christian Institute, does not feel that sufficient information was yet publicly available to assess the impact of the removal of the prohibition against homosexual servicemembers:

Well, it’s far too early to say what the results of lifting the ban have been. Clearly some senior officers are so concerned that they have resigned. We have not yet been able to investigate the implementation of the policy. (Personal Communication, September 21, 2000)

Debbie Gupta, the Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Stonewall, also feels that her

organization is not in a position to know the military effects of the policy change on morale, unit cohesion, or harassment levels. She points to the statements of Rear-Admiral Burnell-Nugent as providing the best public evidence of the impact of the policy change (Personal Communication, October 18, 2000).

None of the other organizations, including the non-partisan RUSI, know of any major problems with morale, unit cohesion or operational effectiveness that have developed in the wake of the policy change. Steven Johnston, the Chair of Rank Outsiders, posed the question of operational effectiveness and morale to Air Marshal Pledger at a RUSI presentation on September 28 concerning personnel matters:

I asked the very same question [concerning operational effectiveness and morale], and his direct reply was that there had been no change in either operational effectiveness or problems with moral[e]. In fact, I have three members of my Association who have been accepted back to full service (all in the Navy) where they have rejoined with the service knowing about their sexual orientation. These three individuals are of the three rank structures: Lt. [Commander], Chief Petty Officer and rating. This I believe is sufficient evidence to back up that statement. (Personal Communication, October 16, 2000)

Peter Tatchell, the Chairman of Outrage!, echoes Joan Heggie’s comments about the lack of news about difficulties during the transition. Although Outrage! does not have the military connections that either RUSI or Rank Outsiders maintains, Tatchell suggests that the level of concern before the removal of the ban means that major post-change problems would have been brought to light:

But clearly, there has been none of the damage that the army chiefs were predicting to morale or operational effectiveness. … [G]iven the dire warnings the service chiefs were making before the ban was lifted about how it would cripple morale, the consequences they predicted were so severe that we should be seeing something by now. But they have not come to pass. (Personal Communication, August 21, 2000)

RUSI, Rank Outsiders and Outrage! also have no knowledge of any increases in harassment related to sexual orientation. Rank Outsiders has been monitoring this issue and has been in close contact with the military on these matters. It is best positioned to assess the issue of anti-gay harassment, because they both support gay and lesbian service personnel and have access to the military’s own analysis. Rank Outsiders might hear about cases of harassment of homosexual servicemembers that were not reported within the chain of command. Johnston, the Chair of Rank Outsiders, states that he knows of no significant harassment problems within the British military. He only knows of two minor instances of harassment, both of which were successfully resolved:

As an Association we have not heard of any major problems of harassment or assaults [sic] within the AF. I have been privy to two incidents in which we were able to advise and the problems were resolved quite quickly. … Both incidents were of a ‘name calling’ situation with only one that included any physical efforts, that being belongings overturned and adverse comments painted onto a private motor vehicle. The local commanders were very sympathetic … The end result was that the individual, by his own request, had moved units and is now an instructor at his unit Training Center! (Personal Communication, October 16, 2000)

Johnston further reports that the military has expressed a desire to work effectively with Rank Outsiders should any future problems arise. Johnston explains:

I have been to the Ministry of Defense a number of times in which [harassment] has been the subject of many discussions. It appears that there have not been any cases that they are aware of and were very positive as [to] this situation. I have been told, however, that if any do come to light that I am aware of and require assistance, they will investigate at the highest levels (Personal Communication, October 16, 2000).

Michael Codner, the Assistant Director for Military Sciences at RUSI, believes that assurances of this kind by military commanders are not simply empty gestures. He is convinced that the Armed Forces are strongly committed to making the new policy work. Codner argues that not only has the top brass invested in the policy change, but also that the new thinking about homosexual inclusion is part of a larger shift that has affected the military. Codner explains:

The intention is to be far more than cosmetic. If you look at the thinking of senior personnel, they have invested a great deal of credibility and authority into this policy shift. They want to see it fully implemented.

There has been a kind of generational shift. [For] the people who are moving into the rank of 1-star and 2-star general, who are around 50-53 … for them this is just not so much of a major issue. (Personal Communication, September 26, 2000)

The Chairs of Rank Outsiders and OutRage! both suggest that the eradication of the ban on homosexual service in the military is just the first step in a longer process toward full equality in the military for sexual minorities. The attainment of equal access to domestic partner benefits, joint accommodations and pension benefits will signal a real acknowledgement of the contributions and sacrifices that homosexual personnel have made, as well as their full acceptance into the fabric of military life. Johnston explains:

As to the future, there is still much to be done. The ban being overturned is a major step for the future, but equal rights with their heterosexual colleagues is a different matter. Full employment rights will include: pension rights, accommodation rights and partnership rights … These, when obtained, will show the commitment by the [Armed Forces] hierarchy to full equality to every member of the [Armed Forces] …

As for the transition to the new policy, well it has all been very much a ‘matter of fact’ and life goes on as it always has. In summary, there has simply been no change but a positive step forward that at last each and every person can be themselves and give their very best to the roles that they undertake! (Personal Communication, October 16, 2000)

Since the ban on homosexual servicemembers has been lifted, the British media has reported the first instance of a gay soldier coming out to his crewmates. Most recently, it has also reported the acceptance of the boyfriend of the first openly gay officer in the Royal Navy as a “naval wife”, with rights to benefits such as subsidized flights to see his partner in port and invitations to formal Navy dinners (Gilligan, 2000). Researchers for this report also spoke with four sexual minorities presently serving in the British Armed Forces about their experiences before and after the policy change. The four men include: a chief petty officer in the Royal Navy, a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy, a corporal in the Royal Air Force, and a junior technician in the Royal Air Force. The chief petty officer and the lieutenant commander were both discharged under the former policy and have recently been reinstated. The corporal has been in the military for ten years and was recently promoted. He has been out to his colleagues since the ban was lifted. The junior technician has served continuously for the past five years and has not disclosed his sexual orientation to any of his colleagues. Because these interviewees do not constitute a representative sample of presently-serving homosexual soldiers, their experiences cannot be said to provide a complete picture of life for sexual minorities under the new policy. But their perspectives as servicemembers most affected by the policy change allow for a more detailed portrait of the present conditions on-the-ground than the comments by MOD staff members and other non-military observers.

At the end of January 2000, the first purported servicemember to publicly acknowledge his homosexuality in the wake of the lifting of the ban told his shipmates that he was gay. The sailor, who asked reporters not to disclose his name, announced his sexual orientation several hours after the lifting of the ban. The 280-member crew was ‘reminded’ of the rules against bullying and harassment, and that any allegation would be “thoroughly investigated” (Fleet, 2000). The man told members of the ship’s mess while docked near Portsmouth, Hants, his hometown. He reported that his announcement was well-received. “They were all fine about it. I was surprised. I had no problem with them about it at all”.

The sailor, who had been with the Navy for eight years but had only realized his sexual orientation four years ago, said that he was relieved to have been able to disclose his sexual orientation with his crewmates:

I was just fed up with lying to people, especially when I went home at the weekends. People have asked me where I have been, and I have had to make up somewhere because I had been to a gay club. I was living separate lives. I had my Navy life and I had my life at home. Coming out in the Navy has been a big weight off my shoulders. It has been a big relief. (Fleet, 2000).

The sailor added that he did not expect any problems in the wake of his announcement. He declared, “I do not expect any problems in the future or for it to affect my work” (Fleet, 2000).

On October 29, the Sunday Times reported that the partner of the first openly gay naval officer had won the right to some partner benefits, including joining naval spouses flying out to see their husbands and wives. Lieutenant Commander Craig Jones said that his partner Adam has been “made to feel welcome” by the navy and has been “fully integrated” into naval family life (Gilligan, 2000). Jones’ partner has attended formal dinners on ship and ashore:

Our first mess dinner, in Portsmouth, was a worry, but we had a great time. It was a difficult issue for Adam and me, but people generally, and particularly my colleague’s wives, looked after us very well. (Gilligan, 2000)

All of the out servicemembers interviewed for this report also state that they have had no major problems with their colleagues because of their sexual orientation. Corporal Andrew Blythe has had no difficulties with his colleagues at Bentley Priory, all of whom know that he is gay. Chief Petty Officer Rob Nunn and Lieutenant Commander Michael Griffiths, who have been recently reinstated in the Navy after earlier discharges due to sexual orientation, report that colleagues have responded well to their reinstatements. The circumstances of their departures and returns have meant that the sexual orientation of each officer is widely known by co-workers. This has not, however, resulted in problems for either officer. Lieutenant Commander Griffiths explains:

I am now out to anyone who wishes to know. Just about everyone who knew me before 1995 knows [my sexual orientation,] and I have already met about a dozen people who know since rejoining. They have been absolutely fine, welcoming me back to the Royal Navy and it obviously isn't causing them any difficulty. I have come out to one person who knew me [prior to discharge] but didn't know [my sexual orientation]. He was astonished, remarked that I kept it very quiet before and has been fine since. (Personal Communication, October 22, 2000)

Chief Petty Officer Nunn, who has served in the navy for a total of 21 years, may be returning to submarine duty and is in line for a promotion. He also reports a positive response from co-workers:

Now, the people in the mess have asked me all sorts of questions, and I’ve answered their questions. They think I’m very brave doing what I’ve done, and we’ve now got to the stage where the mess president a couple of nights ago asked if my partner was coming to the Christmas ball. (Personal Communication, October 17, 2000)

Chief Petty Officer Nunn believes that the best approach has been to allow for an open dialogue with colleagues about the subject of his sexual orientation and his reinstatement. This has enabled him to counter stereotypes, improve the knowledge of his colleagues, and put people at ease. Chief Petty Officer Nunn has not been subject to harassment either before his dismissal or after his return; he has, however, encountered several people since his reinstatement who have been unsure how to respond to him. He describes the experience:

Well, it’s the not being able to ask me a question. It’s the old – ‘I don’t know quite what to say’. In fact, one guy that I talked to who couldn’t sort of talk to me, I said, ‘Right, I’m going to ask the questions that you want to ask, and answer them.’ So I did. (Personal Communication, October 17, 2000)

Chief Petty Officer Nunn adds that his open approach has been successful. Once colleagues are able to ask the questions that they have about homosexuality and about the service of gay and lesbian soldiers, any remaining discomfort seems to disappear. With respect to the colleague who was once afraid to voice his queries, Chief Petty Officer Nunn reports that he is “nice as pie now” (Personal Communication, October 17, 2000).

All four respondents feel positively about the policy change. While Lieutenant Commander Griffiths and the junior technician believe that it is too early to know if the policy will be implemented fairly for both heterosexual and homosexual soldiers, Corporal Blyth and Chief Petty Officer Nunn both feel that the army is committed to providing equal standards for heterosexual and homosexual soldiers alike. Corporal Blyth says that, “In fact I now feel more protected under the military code than my partner does at work ([h]e’s a civilian)” (Personal Communication, October 27, 2000).

Chief Petty Officer Nunn believes that he has already seen evidence of the military’s commitment to enforcing across-the-board both a code of social conduct and a zero-tolerance policy for harassment. He explains:

To a person, everybody I’ve talked to, commander downwards, has said – if you’ve got problems, come and see me. … I can deal with most of it. But you know, I know full well that if I went to one of them with it, it would be sorted out. They are more than willing to use the legislation, which is very good news from our point of view. (Personal Communication, October 17, 2000)

He also reports that he has just acted as the Provost Marshal at a Court Martial for a male soldier who had been sexually harassing female trainees. The male soldier was severely disciplined; he was demoted a rank, had to forfeit a medal and lost twelve years of good conduct. Chief Petty Officer Nunn argues that this punishment was a good example of the military’s willingness to apply the social code of conduct to all its servicemembers (Personal Communication, October 17, 2000).

Chief Petty Officer Nunn, Lieutenant Commander Griffiths and the junior technician also report that not much has changed in the day-to-day life in the Armed Forces. The primary alteration has been that homosexual service personnel now have the option to reveal their sexual orientation without fear of discharge. Having this choice enables soldiers to confront comments or harassment by peers without having to worry about losing their jobs. Chief Petty Officer Nunn and Lieutenant Commander Griffiths both agree that service personnel were more receptive to a change in policy than MOD officials initially believed. Lieutenant Commander Griffiths declares:

The policy appears to have been put across as unwelcome but inevitable

and the briefing officers seemed to be embarrassed by the requirement to

tell their men and women of the change. Fortunately, the men and women seem to be much better able to cope with the change than senior officers were prepared to give them credit for and many of the men and women know friends or family outside of the Service who are gay. (Personal Communication, October 22, 2000)

For Chief Petty Officer Nunn, his assessment of the open-mindedness of the soldiers stems from both the reception he has received upon his return and the comments of his crewmates when he was discharged. When his co-workers originally heard that he was being dismissed, they expressed support for him:

In fact, all of them were coming up to me and saying ‘if there’s anything I can do, give us a shout’, all this sort of stuff. And … my commanding officer when he said goodbye to me, said that ‘we can’t afford to lose people like you, but my hands are tied’. And the attitude as far as I can see – certainly it’s been proved since I got back - is that ‘what the hell’s the problem here?’. You do your job, and that’s all they want from you.

(Personal Communication, October 17, 2000)[44]

At the same time, however, the servicemembers agree that negative stereotypes about homosexuals continue to be widespread among British soldiers. Because the Armed Forces is such an insular climate, many gay and lesbian soldiers still feel fearful of revealing their sexual orientation in a setting where anti-homosexual feelings remain pervasive. For the RAF junior technician, the homophobia of his colleagues has made him wary of telling anyone about the people that he dates or other aspects of his private life:

And [the restrictive military environment is] difficult, and that prevents people from coming out, the fact that it’s such an insular environment, where everybody knows everyone else… and no matter if you get moved, someone else will find out, and that’s the big problem for people at the moment, is that we know it’s quite homophobic, and we know that there’s not an easy way of getting away from it. And that’s the worry we face at the moment – is the general perception of gay people. (Personal Communication, October 22, 2000)

But, he adds, ‘Gay people are just like any other people’ (Personal Communication, October 22, 2000). For Lieutenant Griffiths, changing heterosexual servicemembers’s attitudes about gay and lesbian people will take time:

Overall, the [Royal Navy] seems to be treating the change in policy as a bit of a joke (I believe as an inherent defense mechanism) but this is likely to change as the numbers of openly gay people grow. I do not foresee a problem and the joke will stop once people get used to serving with lesbian and gay people. (Personal Communication, October 22, 200)

For Corporal Blyth, such a change in attitudes has already begun:

Yes, there is less micky talking etc. We used to be a minority that was fair game to be the butt of someone’s [sic] joke, but that is all changing. People are now aware that they used to serve with [closeted] gays and the ones I work with now know that they are serving with a gay man, [who] is proud of the fact he’s gay. (Personal Communication, October 27, 2000)

IX. CONCLUSION

The British Services fought for a number of years to maintain its policy of excluding openly gay and lesbian soldiers. Even after the outcome of the European Court of Human Rights case appeared inevitable, the Armed Forces resisted calls to eliminate the ban. While the Ministry of Defense asked commanders to soften their enforcement of the ban in the months before the decision was handed down, it both refused to alter its basic policy and continued to dismiss soldiers for homosexuality. The last gay soldier was discharged from the military just three days before the ruling that overturned the ban on homosexual service. Service officials argued that the inclusion of open homosexuals would engender distrust, splinter working relationships, damage morale, and even harm operational effectiveness. Efforts to overturn the ban were deemed by some military officials to be inappropriate political meddling in military operations and harmful social engineering.

Once the decision was handed down by the European Court, however, the military acted quickly to put in place a policy that would both accord with the ruling and address effectiveness concerns. The Armed Forces enacted a new policy within three months of the decision by the European Court. It established a nondiscriminatory mandate that focuses on behavior rather than on personal characteristics. It emphasized the importance of equal application of the new social code of conduct and instructed commanders to intervene in soldiers’ personal lives only when operational effectiveness might be compromised. It invited discharged soldiers to reapply and accepted back several former service personnel. The Services also reemphasized the policy of zero tolerance for harassment, bullying and victimization.

While the long-term effects of the elimination of the ban remain to be seen, the first ten months of the new social code of conduct and the more inclusive policy have been a clear and unqualified success. The Services’ own internal assessment at six months found that the new policy has “been hailed as a solid achievement” (Ministry of Defense, 2000e, p. 2). There have been no indications of negative effects on recruiting levels. The social code of conduct has been effectively incorporated into the military’s training courses. No mass resignations have occurred. There have been no major reported cases of gay-bashing or harassment of sexual minorities. There have been no major reported cases of harassment or inappropriate behavior by gay or lesbian soldiers. There has been no perceived effect on morale, unit cohesion or operational effectiveness. The new policy has been well received by soldiers, and the policy change has been characterized by a “marked lack of reaction” (Ministry of Defense, 2000e, p. 2).

The conclusions of the Ministry of Defense report have been confirmed by our conversations with more than twenty-five representatives from the military, academia, and non-governmental organizations. None of those interviewed know of any major problems associated with the policy change. No one has heard of any difficulties related to recruitment or training completion rates; recruitment levels are characterized as “quite buoyant” (Barnard, Personal Communication, October 13, 2000). There has not been a problem of mass resignations associated with the removal of the ban. None of those interviewed have heard of cases of serious homophobic harassment. Rank Outsiders, the only organization devoted exclusively to homosexual servicemembers, knows of only two cases of minor problems. The issues were quickly addressed by military personnel and effectively resolved. Out service personnel interviewed for this report and by other sources describe collegial treatment by their co-workers and other servicemembers.

Experts in all fields acknowledged that more work remains to be done, and new obstacles could still emerge. Homophobic attitudes persist throughout the Services, and many soldiers therefore feel the need to remain silent about their personal lives. It is possible that some problems will develop as more gay and lesbian service personnel acknowledge their sexual orientation to colleagues, or if the Armed Forces relaxes its vigilance against harassment and inappropriate behavior of all kinds. Issues of equality such as pension, accommodation and partnership rights have yet to be addressed. Still, the distance that has been traveled over the past year is impressive. Concerns of dire consequences have been replaced by a general recognition that the transition has proceeded smoothly.

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You can download a PDF version of this report here.

Original research and analysis conducted for this report were furnished by ELM Research Associates, an independent, non-partisan research consultancy. The authors thank Nathan Paxton, Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley for invaluable research assistance.

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In November 1992, the Australian Defence Forces lifted its ban on open gay and lesbian soldiers. Using all available data from military, academic, non-governmental, and other sources, this report assesses the extent to which the lifting of the gay ban has affected the well-being and performance of the Australian military.

Based on the results of prior studies, eighteen in-depth interviews with informed military and non-military observers, and other data, this study finds that the full lifting of the ban on gay service has not led to any identifiable negative effects on troop morale, combat effectiveness, recruitment and retention, or other measures of military performance. Furthermore, available evidence suggests that policy changes associated with the lifting of the ban may have contributed to improvements in productivity and working environments for service members. Key findings include:

· Senior officials, commanders, and military scholars within the ADF consistently appraise the lifting of the ban as a successful policy change that has contributed to greater equity and effective working relationships within the ranks.

· Prior to the lifting of the ban, ADF service chief argued that allowing homosexuals to serve openly would jeopardize recruitment, troop cohesion, and combat effectiveness while also spreading AIDS and encouraging predatory behavior

· Senior officials, commanders and scholars report that there has been no overall pattern of disruption to the military. However, some individual units have reported disruptions that were resolved successfully through normal management procedures.

· While the lifting of the ban was not immediately followed by large numbers of personnel declaring their sexual-orientation, by the late 1990s significant numbers of officers and enlisted personnel had successfully and largely uneventfully come out to their peers.

· Recruitment and retention rates have not suffered as a result of the policy change. As Commodore R. W. Gates of the Royal Australian Navy states in the report, “There was no great peak...where people walked out, and there was no great dip in recruiting. It really was a non-event.”

· Self-identified gay soldiers, officers, and commanders describe good working relationships in an environment that emphasizes capable and competent job performance under uniform rules of conduct for all personnel. Gay soldiers and commanders have successfully served in recent active deployments in East Timor.

· Complaints regarding sexual orientation issues comprise less than 5% of the total complaints received by the ADF of incidents of sexual harassment, bullying, and other forms of sexual misconduct.

· Of 1,400 calls received by an anonymous “Advice Line” maintained by the ADF to help personnel and commanders manage potential misconduct issues since this service was initiated in August 1998, 17 (1.21 percent) have related to sexual orientation issues.

· Current debates in Australia related to the policy change are now focused on extending equal benefits to the partners of gay servicemembers, rather than on the policy itself. To the degree that harassment issues continue to exist in the Australian Forces, most observers believe that problems faced by women soldiers are more serious than those faced by gay personnel.

II. INTRODUCTION

Prior to 1992, the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) maintained both formal and informal rules to discourage known or suspected homosexuals from serving (Smith 2000, Agostino 2000). As a result of a number of external and internal pressures, in 1992 the Defence Forces issued a new directive that lifted the remaining ban on homosexual service by specifying uniform rules of appropriate and inappropriate sexual conduct that applied equally to both heterosexual and homosexual interactions. The change in policy met with strong opposition from the ADF service chiefs as well as from several service member organizations who argued that allowing homosexuals to serve openly would jeopardize recruitment, troop cohesion, and combat effectiveness while also spreading AIDS and encouraging predatory behavior (see e.g., Associated Press, 24 November 1993). In the months that followed the policy change, however, the issue largely and quickly faded from the public stage.

This report integrates prior studies of gay-military issues in Australia, press coverage, Australian Forces data, and interviews with eighteen ADF officials, academic observers, non-governmental actors, interest groups, and enlisted personnel to assess how and to what extent the performance and well-being of the Australian Defence Forces have been affected by the 1992 lifting of the ban on open gay service. Almost eight years after the ban was lifted, all available evidence indicates that the policy change has not led to deleterious consequences for recruitment or retention, effective unit functioning, or combat effectiveness. While very little quantifiable data appear to exist that bear directly on performance effects of the policy change, the experiences and observations of senior ADF officials, commanders of active-duty deployments, recruitment officers, and self-identified homosexual servicemembers all strongly suggest that the policy change has been implemented smoothly and successfully, albeit imperfectly. Their opinions are corroborated by the research and evidence provided by informed scholars, journalists, and representatives of a number of interest and pressure groups. At the present time, public debates in Australia over gay-military issues have moved on to second-order concerns—to issues concerning spousal benefits and adequate enforcement of existing anti-discrimination policies in the workplace. For the ADF, the participation of homosexuals in the military is now very much a “non-issue.”

Part III begins the analysis by outlining the evidence collected and the methods used to appraise it. Part IV briefly reviews the historical context of the 1992 decision to lift the ban, describes the policy change, and addresses its implementation. Part V provides a systematic review of evidence from prior assessments, the Australian Defence Forces, and the independent Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission, before moving on to observations made by informed academics and representatives of relevant interest groups. Part V concludes by documenting the experiences of seven current and former self-declared homosexuals in the ADF. Finally, Part VI synthesizes the available evidence and concludes the analysis.

III. METHODOLOGY

Information collected for this report was systematically gathered from publicly available primary and secondary sources relevant to an understanding of military outcomes associated with homosexual service in the Australian Defence Forces. Sources and methods included: identification, retrieval, and analysis of all prior research bearing on homosexual service in the Australian Defence Forces conducted by governmental, academic, and policy-focused organizations in North America; content analysis of Nexis/Lexis search retrievals for all North American, European, and Asia-Pacific news articles and wire service dispatches relating to homosexual service in the Australian Defence Forces before and after the ban was lifted (n=63); interviews undertaken with Australian Defence Forces units and their senior representatives (n=3 individuals); snowball identification and interviewing of major academic, non-governmental, and policy experts on gay-military issues in Australia since the ban was lifted (n=9); and interviews with sexual minority participants in the Australian Defence Forces who were located through the cooperation of leading non-governmental and military human rights organizations (n=7). Australian Defence Forces representatives were chosen by asking academic, non-governmental, and policy experts for suggested contacts who were knowledgeable about the military's policy on homosexuality, and then using snowball identification techniques to identify other interview subjects.

To draw its conclusions, this report relies on a multi-method approach to compare and synthesize evidence provided by a variety of sources. Whenever possible, we compare independent observations from multiple sources to elucidate findings that are consistent among observers in different sectors (e.g., military, academic, non-governmental). During the interview process, we also sought to ensure that the universe of sources drawn upon for the study was complete by repeatedly asking observers from different sectors for recommendations of additional sources of information. While it is possible that additional confidential information on outcomes not documented in this report may be maintained by the ADF, senior officials contacted for this study were not aware of any additional data. The final compilation of sources that informs this report thus reflects an exhaustive inventory of relevant data and opinions.

IV. CONTEXT OF THE 1992 LIFTING OF REMAINING BAN

A. Australian Society and Military Policy Regarding Homosexuals Prior to 1992

Like the Armed Forces in many other Anglophone countries, the Australian military maintained both formal and informal rules proscribing the participation of known homosexuals in the armed forces from 1986 to 1992. Prior to 1986, the ADF did not maintain a formal policy regarding the participation of homosexuals. According to a report by United States General Accounting Office (1993), recruits were not formally questioned about their sexual orientation before 1986. However, informal efforts frequently were made to identify and document activities of personnel suspected of homosexual conduct, usually followed by the removal of such personnel from duty (Agostino 2000). Existing state and federal laws proscribing sodomy and homosexual relations usually were invoked to enforce these actions (Croome 1992, 9; Livingstone 2000).

While most historical perspectives on the treatment of homosexual personnel have identified a number of instances of investigation and prosecution (referred to by some critics as “witch hunts”) between World War II and the mid-1980s, substantial evidence nonetheless exists that homosexuality was at times tolerated if not informally accepted in some units (Smith 2000). Anecdotal evidence provided by most experts interviewed for this report also indicates that many ADF personnel were aware that practicing homosexuals served in the ranks.

In the 1980s, as Australia incorporated international human rights accords into its national laws, federal and state governments actively dismantled existing laws against homosexuality and began to ratify new human rights bills that included protection against arbitrary discrimination. As a result, the ADF could no longer justify anti-homosexual practices on the basis of territorial laws and was required to issue its own policy. It did so in September 1986, and the ban on homosexual service became an explicit and formal part of ADF instructions (Croome 1992; Smith 1995).

Even so, according to Hugh Smith, Associate Professor of Politics at the Australian Defence Force Academy, the policy of banning gays was exercised with some degree of tolerance and senior military officials often used discretion to decide whether or not to implement the gay ban (Smith 2000). At the same time, however, other persons familiar with the situation between 1986 and 1992 assert that the military routinely engaged in “witch hunts” to root out members suspected of homosexuality. According to Dr. Katerina Agostino of the Macquarie University Department of Sociology, “The military invested lots of time and money in finding and rooting people out. Military police were used” (Agostino, 2000)”

B. Context of the Policy Change

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a number of economic, social and cultural factors served to undermine the perceived legitimacy and rationale of the ADF ban on homosexual service. To begin, military leaders encountered criticisms of ADF policies concerning equality of opportunity and racial and ethnic diversity. In 1992, the government examined charges that the ADF was not recruiting a sufficient portion of its soldiers from non-European populations and the result was a major study of the ethnic makeup of the forces (Smith 1995, 535). Debates over the status and treatment of women in the ADF also influenced the perceived legitimacy of the ban on gay service. Though women had been able to participate in the Australian military for many years, either directly or through auxiliary branches like the Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps, they were not allowed to take combat roles until the late 1980s. Smith points out that the three service branches began to face difficulties in retaining qualified personnel: “The ADF thus had a clear incentive to open more positions to women, thereby expanding the pool of potential recruits” (Smith 1995, 540). Related to these problems, considerations of sexual harassment and problems of sexual behavior in the ADF began to come to light. In late 1992, three women who had served on board HMAS Swan alleged that they had been sexually harassed quite severely at the hands of their male shipmates. Similar to the Tailhook sexual harassment incident in the United States, the case provoked widespread outrage and a call for the military to examine gender issues in the forces (Agostino 2000, Smith 1995, Smith 2000).

In the years shortly before government and ADF officials considered lifting the ban on homosexuals, Australia adopted several human rights measures into its laws and codes including the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. Article 26 of the ICCPR posits the fundamental equality of all human beings and Article 2 addresses each individual’s right to equal treatment before the law (Sidoti 2000). Although sexual orientation is not included explicitly in the ICCPR’s list of prohibited justifications for discrimination, Australian Human Rights Commissioner Chris Sidoti says that the ICCPR’s list was meant to be inclusive rather than exclusive. Therefore, Sidoti continues, although not explicitly mentioned, sexual orientation is covered by the spirit of the ICCPR and it cannot serve as the basis of discrimination. Opponents of the ADF ban argued that the military was in violation of these human rights provisions in Australian law.

As civil rights considerations came to play an increasingly important role in the Australian political landscape, the ADF encountered a number of social and international trends that changed its understanding of its own mission and its relationship with civilian society. In particular, the end of the Cold War forced the ADF to reevaluate its role as a fighting force and many Australians came to see military service as a temporary occupation rather than a long-term career.[1] Professor Hugh Smith has argued that during the Cold War, many Australians regarded the military as a calling and a lifetime vocation (1995). According to the old mindset, a career in the armed forces meant that military life always took precedence over other priorities. Smith says that according to the new “occupational” mindset of many Australians, however, a military career is “just another job.” Except in extraordinary circumstances like combat, soldiers now expect regular working hours, free weekends, pension and benefits, and other freedoms and privileges associated with the civilian word. In the late 1980s and early 1990’s, much of Australian society moved toward an occupational outlook on most careers including military service, and just as the rest of Australian society was moving toward greater tolerance and support for individual rights and freedoms, the military found itself needing to adjust (Smith 1995, 536-39).

As the center-left/left party in Australian politics, the Labour government that controlled Parliament in the late 1980s and early 1990s faced some disagreement within its own ranks over social issues such as the lifting of the ban on gays and lesbians in the military. As Croome (2000) points out, some members of Labour’s caucus supported “traditional family values” and opposed lifting the ban. Others were traditional progressives, committed to an expansion of what they argued were equal rights for all Australians.

In a 1990 test of the military ban on homosexuals, a servicewoman made a formal complaint to the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission and contended that her discharge had been partially based upon the fact that she was a lesbian. The HREOC asked the ADF to explain the reasoning behind its ban on homosexual service, and some observers believe that the complaint was a serious challenge to ADF policy and that it may have prompted the ADF to review its rationale for discrimination (UK Ministry of Defence 1996, H1-1; Smith 1995, 544; Croome 1992, 10). In February 1992, the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel informed Parliament that the federal government would review the ADF’s ban (Croome 1992, 10). In June 1992, however, the Defense Minister told Parliament that following the recommendation of the Chiefs of Staff, the Government would not lift the ban. Gay activists condemned the declaration as hypocritical and prejudiced. (Agence France Presse, 18 June 1992)

In reaction, the Government formed a special party committee to study the matter, to accept submissions from interested groups, and to make policy recommendations for the government. In September 1992, this committee recommended that the ban be dropped “immediately.” The Caucus Committee also recommended that the ADF undertake a survey of members’ attitudes and engage in an education campaign as part of the lifting of the ban. Committee members who favored lifting the ban contended that the military was not significantly different from other organizations and thus should not be exempt from anti-discriminatory policy changes being made elsewhere.[2] Those who opposed the removal of the personnel restrictions contended that such a change would hinder the military’s operational effectiveness, combat performance, and morale. At the time, an ADF spokesperson said that the military would find the removal of the ban “disturb[ing]” and would likely react with disgust (Agence France Presse, 18 September 1992).

C. The Lifting of the Ban and Immediate Reactions

In late November 1992, the Cabinet accepted the Caucus Committee recommendation and the Government voted to drop the ban on the service of gays and lesbians in the Australian military. Although the Defense Minister and the service chiefs opposed the removal of the ban, the Attorney General, the Health Minister, and the Prime Minister all supported its removal. The Attorney General argued that Australia’s policy violated international human rights agreements not to discriminate against people based upon sexual orientation and the Health Minister said that by pushing military members to keep their relationships “underground”, the ban contradicted efforts to fight AIDS. Prime Minister Paul Keating then made the decision to accept the policy change and to order its immediate implementation in the entire ADF. (Agence France Presse, 23 November 1992; United Press International, 23 November 1992; Reuters, 24 November 1992.)

In place of the previous military regulation banning gays and lesbians from service, the government issued a more general instruction on “sexual misconduct policy.” Among other provisions, the new instruction referred to unacceptable conduct without making a distinction between homosexuality and heterosexuality. Rather than define what was unacceptable based upon sexual orientation, in other words, the new instruction prohibited any sexual behavior that negatively impacted group cohesion or command relationships, took advantage of subordinates, or discredited the ADF (Smith, 1995, 545). Thus, for example, “homosexual advances” were not illegitimate; threatening sexual behavior was. And the policy provided commanders with some latitude to judge whether a certain behavior was acceptable or not in a certain context. According to a report prepared by the British Defence Ministry, the Australian policy “recognises that sexual relations are a part of adult life and are predominately a private matter for each individual. Nevertheless, the ADF is concerned with the sexual behavior of its members where it is inconsistent with the inherent requirements of the ADF, or where it is unlawful. …The term ‘Unacceptable Sexual Behaviour’ is not defined and thus left to a wide variety of command interpretation. This lack of prescriptive definition of unacceptable behavior is in line with the Australian Sex Discrimination Act’s emphasis on what is reasonable in the circumstances and the recipient’s response to such behaviour” (UK Defence Ministry 1996, H1-3).

Reaction to the Australian change was swift and severe. The Returned and Services League, Australia’s largest veterans group, condemned the policy change and argued that allowing open homosexuals to serve would shatter unit cohesion and lead to a deterioration of trust among soldiers, thus undermining the forces’ fighting effectiveness (Associated Press, 24 November 1992). Other opponents raised the specter of AIDS and said that the battlefield practice of direct blood-to-blood transfers would lead to an increased incidence of HIV infection. Even within the military, however, opinion seemed to be somewhat mixed (Associated Press, 9 December 1992). As of January 1993, however, no members of the ADF declared themselves to be gay to military authorities (Associated Press, 27 January 1993). Early reports generated in the immediate aftermath of the policy change indicated that the ADF did not experience any decline in recruiting or combat performance and media attention to the issue largely disappeared approximately six months after new policy’s implementation (New York Times, 30 April 1993).

After the lifting of the ban, the ADF introduced a variety of new programs and training courses to enforce and support the provisions of the Defence Instruction on Discrimination, Harassment, Sexual Offences, Fraternisation and other Unacceptable Behavior in the Australian Defence Forces (2000). In 1997, responsibilities for monitoring, education, and enforcement of the Instructions were consolidated into the new Defence Equity Organization (DEO) that reports directly to the Defence Personnel Executive (the head of personnel for the ADF). Currently, the DEO is planning to provide additional support for the integration of gay and lesbian soldiers by creating a new training course (Grey 2000).

V. EFFECTS OF FULL INCLUSION ON PERFORMANCE IN THE ADF: APPRAISING THE EVIDENCE

A. Prior Assessments: United States General Accounting Office (1993) And United Kingdom Ministry Of Defence (1996)

GAO (1993) Study

In June 1993, seven months after the Australian ban on homosexual service was lifted, the General Accounting Office of the United States conducted interviews with ADF officials to document early outcomes associated with the change (GAO 1993). The short overview of the policy change concludes with a summary statement based on comments from an “Australian official,” who stated that:

“...[A]lthough it is too early to assess the results of the revised policy, no reported changes have occurred in the number of persons declaring his or her sexual preference or the number of recruits being inducted. Effects on unit cohesiveness have not yet been fully determined. However, early indications are that the new policy has had little or no adverse impact” (19).

These claims are substantiated by additional evidence collected for this study, described below.

United Kingdom (1996) Assessment

In February 1996, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence completed a report documenting the findings of its “Homosexuality Policy Assessment Team” that investigated homosexual personnel policies of a number of foreign militaries. The team sent to Australia met with representatives of the Royal Australian Air Force, Royal Australian Army, and Royal Australian Navy, as well as with Dr. Hugh Smith of the ADF Academy (also interviewed for this report) and service psychologists at ADF headquarters in Canberra. Their findings describe the context of the policy change, the manner in which it was implemented, and observed outcomes in practice.

Regarding implementation of the policy, the British team reported that service staffs believed that the change had not resulted in any notable problems for military functioning. According to the report,

Service policy staffs all stated that following an initial outcry, homosexuality had become a non-issue...The difficulties of integrating open homosexuals were described as ‘just another legitimate management problem’ (UK Ministry of Defence 1996, H1-4).

The opinions of personnel drawn from the services, however, varied in their assessments of potential difficulties arising from the policy change. According to the report, male members of a random volunteer group from the Royal Australian Air Force were “very largely against the new policy and believe that, in a combat situation, the presence of open homosexuals would have a degrading effect on [o]perational effectiveness” (H1-4). However, personnel drawn from an Army Logistics unit, as well as a Royal Australian Navy group based in Sydney, emphasized equality and non-discrimination regardless of personal opinions on homosexuality per se (H1-4). The report concludes that HIV was “not regarded as a significant issue” in light of routine testing of personnel.

The British report noted that thirty-three homosexual soldiers, contacted through the president of the major gay servicemembers group, had been willing to identify themselves to members of the team. Senior members of the group included a RAN Commander and a former Army Lieutenant Colonel. The authors believed that another fifteen personnel were members of the group but were not willing to reveal their identities. The report speculates that the reasons for this “continuing reticence” were related to “fear of comrades [sic] rejection and informal sanctions, and anxiety about the effect on their careers” (H1-5). According to the report, gay service members were satisfied with the policy change but were still eager to push for additional acceptance and rights such as equal entitlements for same-sex partners.

B. Evidence from the Australian Defence Forces

Defence Equity Organization

The Defence Equity Organization (DEO) serves as the primary ADF unit responsible for development, implementation, training, and support for all policies regarding equity, diversity, and sexual misconduct in the military. Its self-described mission “is to inform, educate, encourage and ensure that equitable policies, processes and practices form an integral part of doing business in Defence as the basis for a fairer and better work environment” (DEO 2000). Formed in August 1997 during a widespread re-organization of the ADF, the DEO consolidated responsibilities that had been assigned separately to each service branch as well as a human rights policy area within Defence Headquarters (now defunct). In addition to supporting the implementation of ministry policies, DEO handles complaints regarding all matters of sexual misconduct including harassment, bullying and assault, provides an anonymous advice line for service members and commanders, and directs the training and outreach activities of “Equity Advisors” throughout the forces. The director of the Defence Equity Organization, Ms. Bronwen Grey, occupied the analogous Directorship in Defence Headquarters until 1997.

According to Director Grey, all available formal and informal evidence regarding outcomes associated with the 1992 policy change suggests that, in spite of early fears of deleterious consequences, the lifting of the gay ban has had no adverse effects on the capability or functioning of the Defence Forces:

I have to say, from that point on [the 1992 change], nothing happened. I mean people were expecting the sky to fall, and it didn’t. Now, a number of gay people probably didn’t come out at that point, but we’ve had an X.O. of a ship come out and say to the ship’s company, “I’m gay,” and, quite frankly, no one cared (Grey 2000).

The Director bases her conclusion on her experiences at Defence Equity as well as her tenure as Director of Personnel Policy at Headquarters (HQADF) before the 1997 re-organization. While quantifiable data associated with sexual conduct or performance outcomes prior to 1997 are not available, Director Grey says that

[T]here was no increase in complaints about gay people or by gay people. There was no known increase in fights, on a ship, or in Army units or something...The recruitment figures didn’t alter.… At that time, it didn’t figure in recruitment. Commanders were really on the watch at the time because they were told that had to really make sure that this worked.… [They] were watching out for problems. They didn’t identify any. Now that doesn’t mean there weren’t any, but they didn’t identify any (Grey 2000).

When pushed by the interviewer to identify any problems that may have arisen after the ban was lifted, the Director did note that some gay people probably did not feel comfortable revealing their sexual orientation immediately after the change. Nonetheless, she says that a number of individuals have unambiguously come out to peers and commanding officers and that their revelations had no negative consequences for their careers or personal relationships. When asked to clearly specify any other concrete observations of what she termed a virtual “non event,” the Director added,

All I can say is, from the organizational point of view, while we were waiting for problems...we were ready. Nothing happened. There were no increased complaints or recruiting [problems] at all.… I mean nothing happened. And it’s very hard to document nothing (Grey 2000).

While the ADF could not provide the authors of this study with quantifiable data on sexual misconduct that occurred during the first several years after the lifting of the ban, in 1997 Defence Equity began collecting aggregate data from its anonymous telephone “advice line” that concerned sexual misconduct and harassment. Table 1 summarizes the aggregate results and the specific instances related to homosexual conduct:

Table 1: Total and Sexual Orientation-Specific Instances Received Since Inception: Formal Complaints and Advice Line Calls Regarding Sexual Conduct

SOURCE	Total number	Number involving homo- sexuality	Percent involving homo-sexuality
Formal Complaints Received (March 1997-August 2000)	494	12	2.43%
Advice Line Phone Calls (September 1998-August 31, 2000)	1642	25	1.52%

According to Director Grey, these figures, while not providing a full portrait of possible problems relating to the service of open homosexuals, nonetheless suggest that “harassment regarding sexual orientation really isn’t significant in the ADF.” Reiterating the philosophy behind the ADF’s new position on sexual behavior enshrined in the 1992 lifting of the ban, she notes that the sexual behavior policy monitored and enforced by DEO is intended for all personnel, whether homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual: “It doesn’t matter what the sexual orientation is. The reason we have [these policies] is because unfit behavior diminishes capability. We’re focused on work output and the impact on capability.” Thus, the military’s efforts to collect information and enforce sexual conduct policies do not reflect a particular concern over possible problems relating to homosexual service, but rather a focus on maintaining an appropriate environment for maximum capability and work output. Commenting on the philosophy and approach behind the ADF’s position on this issue, the Director adds:

[O]ur focus is on the work people do, and the way they do the work, and that applies to heterosexuals, bisexuals, and homosexuals. We don’t ask people if they’re homosexual because we don’t care. It doesn’t play a part in promotion, it doesn’t play a part in training, it doesn’t play a part in postings. It simply isn’t an issue. Now that doesn’t mean that we don’t have some complaints, but basically it is a non-issue (Grey 2000).

Evidence form Other ADF Commanders and Personnel

For this study, senior military officials familiar with recruiting, training, deployment, and performance were contacted for their perspectives on the impact of the 1992 decision to lift the gay ban. In this section, we review evidence from in-depth interviews with two senior ADF officials: a one-star Naval Officer with extensive command experience who now serves as Director General of Career Management Policy; and the Senior Marketing Officer of the Defence Course Recruiting Organisation, who oversees a variety of recruitment-related outreach activities across the ADF.

At the request of the authors of this study, the ADF arranged for an interview with a senior warfare officer with substantial command experience and widespread familiarity with deployments for his perspectives on the performance outcomes associated with the 1992 lifting of the ban. At the time of the interview, Commodore R.W. Gates had been in the Royal Australian Navy for twenty-nine years, having commanded a number of frigates and served in policy positions in the personnel division at Defence Headquarters in Canberra. Recently, he was promoted to Commodore (one-star Naval Officer) in the Joint Personnel area in Career Management Policy. In his interview with the study authors, Commodore Gates offered extensive and frank observations based on his experiences.

Consistent with other evidence collected for this study, Commodore Gates described the early 1990s as a time when a pro-active liberal government as well as complaints surrounding the HMAS Swan incident led to widespread concerns about equity and harassment in the ADF. And, like other observers, the Commodore described mixed opinions and strong emotions within the Forces at the prospect of allowing homosexuals to serve openly: while nobody would deny that homosexuals existed in the ADF, whether they should “declare” their orientation was another matter. When the policy did change, serious protests all-but-disappeared, and formerly closeted personnel stepped forward successfully and largely uneventfully. In his recounting of the experiences of several personnel who have come out without major problems, the Commodore offered the following example:

I must admit, after it happened, it’s been an absolute non-event. We’ve had some major cases of people declaring. Probably the most that I recall...would be one of our executive officers of a destroyer, the second-in-command. He declared. And, I’ll be frank, it created a bit of a stir. We’re talking about a mid-rank lieutenant commander in an absolute critical position on board a major warship – one heartbeat from command.… That person under the new policy was certainly not removed from the ship, and in fact completed his full posting (Gates 2000).

According to the Commodore, in this case the lieutenant commander approached the ship’s captain to explain his decision and reasons for declaring that he was gay. The lieutenant commander explained that he wanted to uphold honesty and integrity and could not continue to “live a lie.” Upon hearing the news, both the captain and troops were generally supportive, continued to respect his position as second-in-command, and moved on with their missions. Since then, the lieutenant commander’s career has continued successfully—he was promoted and is now serving in the RAN as a full commander.

The Commodore attributes the largely successful transition to a broader effort on the part of top officials in the Navy and the ADF to develop aggressive new training protocols to minimize harassment and maximize equality of opportunity. Like other experts interviewed for this study, he points to both external societal pressures as well as internal missteps within the ADF as motives for the change. In the Navy, efforts began shortly after the HMAS Swan incident with a program called “Good Working Relationships,” followed by the new defence instruction on sexual misconduct in 1992 which was promulgated via promotion courses offered throughout the chain of command.

When asked specifically if the policy change seemed to have any affect on recruiting or retention, the Commodore replied,

In my opinion, it had no effect. It got a little bit of press back in ‘92, it was a normal flutter. And then something else came along, and the press moved on to something else. There was no great peak in “wasting trade” as we call it where people walked out, and there was no great dip in recruiting. It really was a non-event. I want to stress there was a lot of work in making sure it was a non-event (Gates 2000).

While he had no recollection of any specific person refusing to join or leaving the service because of the change, the Commodore noted the possibility that one or two cases might exist where a heterosexual soldier was personally offended and chose to leave. Given that the ADF included 70,000 people at the time, he considers such numbers as “very, very minor.”

The observations made by Commodore Gates are consistent with the views of the recruitment director interviewed for this study as well as other recruitment officers. Squadron Leader Chris Renshaw, Senior Marketing Officer for Defence Force Recruiting, has not observed any deleterious effects of the policy change on recruiting or retention. Renshaw says that recruiting and retention rates have decreased but that the lifting of the gay ban had nothing to do with the trends. Rather, he says that government-mandated reductions in the size of the ADF as well as competing opportunities in the civilian sector explain the change. [3] Renshaw says that the policy change has allowed personnel to spend less time monitoring rumors and innuendo and to devote more time to the execution of their missions.[4]

C. Evidence from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and Government Officials

The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission is a statutory body that enjoys a relatively autonomous status in Australian politics that is analogous to courts. The Commission’s members are appointed by the government and it receives its budget through the normal budgetary process but it is not accountable to the federal government, the bureaucracy, or political parties. In this section, we review evidence from just-retired Human Rights Commissioner Chris Sidoti, who made gay and lesbian equality one of the priorities of his five-year tenure at the Human Rights Commission. Although Sidoti had little authority to force organizations to change their practices, he was responsible for investigating complaints and suggesting legislative reforms to minimize and eliminate discrimination in Australia. He told us that HREOC has devoted considerable effort to monitoring sexual orientation issues in the military.

Sidoti agrees with most of the observations of military and academic experts we contacted. He indicates that there have been virtually no significant effects of the policy change on the military. In his five years as Human Rights Commissioner, Sidoti estimates that his office investigated half a dozen complaints of discrimination based upon sexual orientation. He also indicates that harassment of homosexuals also seems largely non-existent, at least at the official level.

Sidoti notes that cases of harassment and discrimination involving gays and lesbians have tended to occur when heterosexual service members have abused homosexual service members. He is aware of only one or two such cases but he cautions that the problem may be more widespread than is officially known. And, he emphasizes that although soldiers are told that gays and lesbians are welcome, one would not want to be gay and in the military. He explains that although there has been no major public scandal regarding harassment of gays, this does not mean that such behavior does not occur: “Whether it is widespread or not, I don’t know. In some sense, it may not be as widespread as harassment of women, because gays have always been [around] and the military knows it” (Sidoti 2000).

Sidoti believes that the lifting of the ban may have had positive implications for military effectiveness. Not only does the policy shift “improve the career prospects of gays,” but “It’s bad for morale to have your guys snooping on other of your guys” (Sidoti 2000). He concludes that the 1992 policy change is indicative of and contributes to broader social change. “The military is the last bastion of traditional male values. These developments contribute to broader social acceptance for all” (Sidoti 2000). However, Sidoti notes that there are areas of military personnel policy in which progress has not been made such as the recognition of partners and the extension of benefits.

D. Opinions and Observations of Academic, NGO, and Other Informed Observers

Academic Observers

For a number of reasons, few scholars have examined outcomes associated with the 1992 policy change in detail.[5] Professor Hugh Smith, of the School of Politics of the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, remains the leading academic authority on matters relating to the policy change and military performance.[6] In addition to interviewing Professor Smith, we also sought to contact other scholars at major Australian universities who maintain a professional interest in gender, the military, and sexuality. As a result, we identified and interviewed two additional academics who have conducted related research.

Based on his research and observations over the last eight years, Professor Smith believes that the lifting of the ban has not led to any significant effects on military performance, combat effectiveness, or unit cohesion. Like other respondents, he characterizes the outcome of the policy change as a virtual “non-issue,” with little remaining salience in government, media, or military circles. The lack of quantitative empirical data regarding the policy change constitutes, in his opinion, a form of evidence. In Professor Smith’s words, “This is not a subject that has troubled the Defence Force to the extent that they have felt that studies have needed to be done on it. The lack of evidence is evidence” (Smith 2000). He explains that when government ordered the military to lift the ban, some officers said: “Over my dead body, if this happens I’ll resign.” However, Smith says that there were no departures and that the change was accepted in “true military tradition”(Smith 2000).

When pushed by the interviewer to identify any possible negative outcomes associated with the lifting of the ban, Professor Smith acknowledged that there “may have been one or two resignations,” but that close government scrutiny of ADF policy implementation did not find any real effect on performance. While there have been occasional reports of coming-out incidents that may have made peers “a bit nervous,” Professor Smith does not believe that there have been any notable incidents of gay bashing or harassment (Smith 1995). To the degree that problems of sexual misconduct and harassment continue in the ADF, Professor Smith believes that they are mostly related to the treatment of women in the ranks and incidents of hazing (referred to as “bastardization”) in the Academy.

Professor Smith’s views about the harassment of women are consistent with the findings of Dr. Katerina Agostino of the sociology department at Macquarie University in Sydney. Dr. Agostino, who has consulted with the ADF on sexual fraternization policy, argues that women who work in charged military environments such as ships often face cultural and institutional obstacles when their male peers equate heterosexual masculinity with effective military performance. Her research suggests that gay and lesbian personnel, like heterosexual women, may encounter difficulties when attempting to integrate fully into traditional military culture. However, her research also shows that women and gays can and do adopt a variety of strategies to negotiate these difficulties and integrate themselves into a changing environment that is, very slowly, becoming more egalitarian and less entrenched in masculinist beliefs (Agostino 1997, Agostino 1998a, Agostino 1998b, Agostino 2000). Nonetheless, instances of discrimination and harassment still occur, especially when individuals do not conform to traditional masculine stereotypes. In her interview with the authors of this study, Dr. Agostino was able to identify an example:

There is a senior naval officer that I know who’s very good at what he does, but he’s been unable to get promotion. It’s quite clear from his reports that he is very good at what he does. He dyed his hair blond, but you can see his natural color at the roots. He dresses “gay” when off-duty…. He feels strongly that his opportunities have been curtailed since he’s openly outed himself.… He was called up before his commanding officer, because the C.O. had heard through the rumor mill that his hair had been dyed pink. The C.O. saw it wasn’t true. [The friend who is an officer] wasn’t censured but he was certainly told off about it and told that he was being openly gay. He was also told there’s nothing wrong with being gay, you just can’t look so gay.

Like Professor Agostino, Dr. Jindy Pettman of the Australian National University observes that women and, quite possibly, gays, still face informal obstacles as they attempt to integrate into a traditionally masculine heterosexual military culture. Based on her research and observations, Dr. Pettman notes that the largest conflicts and challenges to the ADF in the early 1990s concerned gender equality; questions of sexual orientation were secondary. When the possibility of lifting the gay ban was raised, military officials who were opposed to integrating women raised similar objections to the inclusion of gays and said that homosexuals would jeopardize unit cohesion, threaten the privacy of soldiers, and lead to performance problems. However, she says that after women were permitted to serve in most deployment environments and after the ban on gay and lesbian soldiers was lifted, the flurry of concern immediately died off and both issues fell from public attention. Dr. Pettman believes that this relatively uneventful adaptation, while not indicating the disappearance of all forms of discrimination, suggests that military culture is slowly becoming more inclusive (Pettman 2000).

Observations and Evidence Provided By Interest Groups, Non-Governmental Organizations, and Other Observers

For this study, all major interest groups, veterans associations, journalists, and non-governmental organizations that have been involved in public or policy discussions relating to outcomes of lifting of the ban and its consequences were contacted for their observations and any documented evidence they might possess. Interviews and supplemental documentation were obtained from five sources: the national president of the Returned and Services League of Australia, a major veterans group analogous to the American Legion; a well-known activist and co-convenor of the Australian Council for Lesbian and Gay Rights; a journalist who has written three major stories on gay/military issues in the last year; and a New Zealand-based consultant who is a specialist in gay/military integration issues and who has provided consulting services to the Australian Defence Forces. Additional resources were obtained from the International Lesbian and Gay Association and the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group.

Two of the individuals interviewed and their respective organizations have held divergent opinions regarding the lifting of the ban. The Returned and Services League (RSL) was an early and active opponent of proposals to lift the ban, arguing that doing so would jeopardize morale, unit cohesion, performance, and decency in the Armed Forces and would hasten the spread of AIDS. Major General Peter Philips (ret’d), the current RSL president interviewed for this study, still opposes the participation of open homosexuals. Mr. Rodney Croome, on the other hand, was a vociferous gay rights activist who lobbied for the removal of the ban. Interestingly, however, Major General Philips’ comments on outcomes associated with the lifting of the ban are more optimistic than those of Mr. Croome.

In a telephone interview with one of the study authors, RSL President Major General Philips reiterated the group’s position and rationale behind opposing the removal of the ban. As summarized in the RSL’s “Standing Policy of the RSL in Australia,” the organization opposes open homosexual participation for four major reasons: (1) the presence of homosexuals will lower morale and military performance; (2) personnel will be at greater risk for contracting HIV; (3) homosexuals engage in predatory behavior; and (4) the military does not need to engage in social experimentation. However, when asked which of these or other problems relating to the lifting of the ban he or the organization believe have come to pass, he responded that, “It’s [homosexuals serving openly] not been a significant public issue. The Defence Forces have not had a lot of difficulty in this area” (Philips 2000). When asked specifically by the interviewer whether he knows of any evidence that suggests that allowing homosexuals to serve might affect military performance, combat effectiveness, or unit cohesion, he replied,

We haven’t fought in any wars since Vietnam, but we have been involved in some UN peacekeeping operations, most recently in East Timor…. If the issue had arisen, it would have in East Timor. I haven’t heard of any gay issues in that (Philips 2000).

Major General Philips acknowledges that some gay personnel have come out to peers but disagreed with assertions made by some groups that there were significant numbers in combat units.

While he cannot identify any concrete data on the matter, Mr. Croome also believes that the lifting of the ban has not contributed to any negative performance consequences for the ADF as a whole. Generally, the change helped reduce the climate of fear and allowed some gay service members to come out to trusted colleagues. However, based on reports he has received, Mr. Croome also asserts that the change has been uneven: instances of discrimination and harassment have been reported, and entitlements for same-sex couples have yet to be granted. Regarding harassment issues, Croome states,

Of those that are about harassment, some have to do with people who are out, and some are from people who are not out but are being gossiped about or suspected of being gay. The harassment is just like any other sort of workplace harassment, but there are no policies to deal with it (Croome 2000).

In recent years, Mr. Croome has been one of the most active critics of the implementation of the new sexual conduct policy, arguing that the ADF’s enforcement of the equal treatment laws is imperfect and incomplete.

Mr. Eugene Moore, Director of Full Spectrum Ltd., a New Zealand consulting firm that addresses sexual orientation issues in the workplace, has been working with the ADF Defence Equity Organization during the past year to provide training and educational briefings to staff and service chiefs on how to best manage concerns relating to sexual orientation. Like other observers, Mr. Moore notes the lack of concrete data on outcomes of the policy change. In his view, the absence of data suggests in part that the ADF did not aggressively follow through with implementation and enforcement in the first several years after the ban was lifted. Moore says that gay service members’ unwillingness to reveal their sexual orientation during the first few years after the ban was lifted may have contributed to perceptions that the policy change was a “non event.” Regarding military performance issues more directly, Moore does not believe that any significant problems have occurred even as more service personnel have come out to peers in recent years.

The experiences of a journalist who covered the issue of gays in the military during the past year provide more direct evidence regarding the welfare of combat units with actively serving self-identified gay personnel. Mr. David Mills has interviewed service members for several stories dealing with same-sex partner benefits and combat service in East Timor. For his investigation of East Timor, Mr. Mills spoke with gay soldiers who had served actively. He was aware of seven or eight active duty soldiers serving in East Timor who self-identify as gay, and he recalls speaking to an enlisted Army soldier who worked as a firefighter:

I spoke with a guy who is serving in the Army, a six-month stint in East Timor, speaking about his experiences. He was an interesting guy who said there is a lot less homophobia in the Armed Forces than you might think, although he was pretty selective about who he was open about his sexuality with.… He said he didn’t have any problem with that [coming out] whatsoever, although there was an element of surprise when he told people” (Mills 2000).

D. Experiences in the Field: Out Personnel, Their Commanders and Peers

Drawn from the opinions and observations of ADF officials and other observers, the evidence presented above strongly suggests that military performance —including recruitment and retention, harassment and sexual misconduct, and unit cooperation —have not suffered as a result of the 1992 decision to allow homosexuals to serve openly. However, the experiences of self-disclosed homosexual personnel themselves may offer the most direct and revealing evidence over how the policy change has impacted unit performance. Using a snowball sampling technique based on initial contacts provided through a gay servicemembers’ organization, seven current and former out ADF members were contacted and interviewed for this study. They include six actively serving members of the three main service branches – Army, Navy, and Air Force — at the ranks of Squadron Leader, Captain, and Flight Sergeant. An additional former enlisted ADF member who self-identifies as gay and who maintains active contact with currently-serving homosexual personnel was also interviewed. Their experiences, while representative of varying ranks, times, and service branches, can nonetheless be characterized by a number of shared qualities.

1. Self-identified gays and lesbians currently serve as enlisted personnel and officers in a range of positions in all of the major service branches of the ADF.

The snowball sample of respondents described here is small and possibly unrepresentative of the larger population of out gay servicemembers in the ADF. Nonetheless, the diversity of backgrounds and positions of the respondents, coupled with their frequent references to out peers in other units or services, suggest that out gay servicemembers are found at all levels and in all branches of the ADF.

Furthermore, most of our respondents have actively served in both troop deployments and managerial/administrative positions during their careers. One respondent, Squadron Leader Michael Seah, and colleagues of several others, actively served in what is widely considered to be Australia’s most “combat-like” and successful deployment in recent years — The United Nations’s peacekeeping operation in East Timor. As Medical Corps Sergeant Scott McLennan, who served in a peacekeeping exercise in Bougainville, New Guinea, comments,

Looking at the current operation in East Timor, I’ve got a number of gay and lesbian friends in an operational situation. I have served in Bougainville, and there is no problem. We all get work professionally, and it’s our jobs that come first. You don’t look at it from a gay or lesbian point of view, you don’t look at it from a straight point of view. You’re there to do a job, and you work together to ensure that the job gets done (McLennan 2000).

2. Currently serving self-identified gay and lesbian service members have experienced largely uneventful coming-out processes and describe professional, friendly, and cooperative relationships with their peers and commanders.

All of the self-identified gay and lesbian active personnel we spoke with describe their experiences of coming out as largely positive and uneventful. While some describe initial uneven reactions among their colleagues and commanders—ranging from warm acceptance to puzzlement to unease—over time all of our respondents experienced a transition to full acceptance. As one respondent who served in East Timor put it:

From the discrimination point of view, I haven’t faced any overt discrimination. Most people I’ve come across…have been very supportive, certainly haven’t treated me any differently. I’ve found it quite refreshing (Seah 2000).

A lesbian Squadron Leader in the Air Force assessed her situation similarly:

People, when they do find you’re gay,...some might be a little bit weary, but...it very soon disappears, because what you’re judged on is your professionalism and your ability. Who according to your sexual orientation you find attractive is not an issue (Renshaw 2000).

All of the respondents explain acceptance by their peers as a reflection of a shared respect for professional competence and capability: in the end, one’s peers and colleagues come to recognize that one’s sexual orientation has nothing to do with the ability to do one’s job.

I’ve had nothing but support. It’s an initial thing, but then they work with it, and they see you in an operational point of view, and they see your skill level, and they have no issue. If they cannot fault you professionally, they will not look for faults with you personally (McLennan 2000).

The fact that these people were there had no effect whatsoever on the effectiveness of the units, unit cohesion or morale. People are accepted for who they are and, as long as they can do the job, who cares. That’s pretty much the view of most, I would say, in defence, here in Australia. As long as you are capable of doing your job, they don’t care what you’re doing in your spare time (Stuht 2000).

Once a gay soldier is out to his or her peers, his or her sexuality usually becomes largely irrelevant to professional identity. Perhaps the single most common way respondents describe their sexuality on the job is as a “non-issue.” As Army Captain Renshaw paraphrases it, “No one gives a damn, no one worries about it. Totally a non-issue…Here people just don’t care” (Renshaw 2000).

To the degree that evidence of their sexual orientation becomes a point of discussion, respondents described a number of ways in which the new policy has allowed their identity to be normalized as simply one aspect of their lives. A welcoming and open environment allows gay soldiers to spend less time monitoring their comments and more time focusing on their work:

Well, you can be more honest. That’s one of the key things about being in the military — honesty and integrity. Because you haven’t got to worry about if someone’s saying something behind your back, or is someone gossiping or something, because if they gossip, I don’t care. So I’m more focused on my job, I’m more focused on what I’m achieving here, and less worried about the [stories] and what people think. In terms of productivity, I’m far more productive now. Things like when you come into work and people say, what did you do over the weekend. Oh, what was her name... all that stuff disappears. What did you do over the weekend. Everything’s out in the open, no fear, no nothing, no potential of blackmail, no security implications...nothing (Renshaw 2000).

The majority of respondents also report that the newfound honesty they are permitted allows for more frank and sometimes even playful exchanges when uncomfortable situations do arise:

I took my ex-partner to the work Christmas party…I did the courtesy of telling my boss beforehand that I was going to do it. And, he just looked at me with a bit of a pained expression and said, “I expect you to behave.” And I just sort of looked at him and said, “Look, knowing the other people that work on this floor and how they behave with booze, you’re worried about me.” Point taken…. (Renshaw 2000).

I’m quite open about my sexuality. Sometimes the boys decide to give me a bit of a ding-up with a joke or something like that, but that doesn’t bother me. We work really well together, and I’m sure it’s the same for other gay and lesbian soldiers and sailors who are out, and they’re accepted by their peers. O.K. — they’re the object of ridicule sometimes, but everybody is (Stuht 2000).

Other respondents also describe examples in which their orientation becomes integrated as one aspect of who they are, taken no more or less seriously than any other aspect of their lives.

3. While the ADF has succeeded in introducing new directives extending equal treatment to gay and lesbian soldiers, most self-identified personnel are aware of individual incidents of possible discrimination or harassment at the unit level.

While all out personnel we spoke with described their work environments as generally untroubled and productive, most were aware of scattered instances of anti-gay discrimination or harassment suffered by others since the new policy was introduced. Most of these incidents relate to isolated remarks made by individual peers, but there have been occasional references to alleged inappropriate conduct by commanders or officers. Perhaps the most dramatic example is the case of suspected promotion bias offered by Dr. Agostino (see section D, above). A second case is described by RAAF Flight Sergeant Livingstone, who recalls attending a training session where an Army warrant officer defended a homophobic response to a hypothetical scenario by claiming that the Army “did not care” about the changed policy on gay service (Livingstone 2000). Livingstone did not attribute an exact date to the event, but the comments were made in the mid-1990s. Other sources familiar with Army life acknowledge some individual instances of early resistance to the policy change but do not believe they are representative of a systematic pattern.

Generally, respondents report that incidents of discrimination or harassment brought to the attention of commanders are handled appropriately. Several respondents identified incidents in which peers who had made inappropriate remarks were disciplined by superiors promptly and without reservation. Based on the experiences of peers in a variety of units, several personnel we spoke with believed that most of the unevenness in treatment could be ascribed to the differences in particular work environments. As a former ADF service member familiar with the experiences of a number of gay soldiers remarks, “It is totally determined on the work environment of the individual. We’ve got some senior officers who are great—they deal with and address their [gay service members’] problems or whatever, and always work to offer help.” (Edwards 2000).

4. Gay personnel who were in the forces when the ban was lifted, or know of others who were, describe substantial, sustained changes in formal and informal understandings and procedures conducive to better work environments.

All of the respondents who were familiar with life in the ranks for homosexuals before the ban was lifted concur that working environments have improved markedly in the last eight years. While many of these improvements came as a direct consequence of formal implementations of the Defence Instruction issued in 1992 on sexual misconduct, others are seen as reflective of subtle but still important changes in military culture. Respondents concur with other observers interviewed for this study in describing an operating environment that now takes equality of opportunity and treatment quite seriously — for women, for ethnic minorities, and for homosexuals. While pockets of discrimination and unequal treatment still exist, most respondents feel that the ADF has come to embody the same commitment to human rights, equality of opportunity, and diversity (what the ADF calls “Equity”) that now characterize Australian civil society as a whole.

The current situation stands in sharp contrast to the atmosphere of fear, uncertainty, and betrayal that characterized military life for many personnel suspected of being homosexual prior to 1992. Squadron Leader Renshaw and others who joined the ADF before the ban was lifted identify a number of painful personal and professional consequences of being closeted — to oneself and to others — in order to safeguard careers. Seaman Colin Edwards, who was forced to leave the Royal Australian Navy in 1981 after voluntarily disclosing his homosexuality, recalls investigations designed to compel his friends to identify other homosexuals. One colleague, a heterosexual, committed suicide shortly after being investigated for his association with Seaman Edwards (Edwards 2000).

5. Although gay personnel are generally satisfied with the new policy, they feel frustrated and marginalized by the failure of the ADF to extend equal treatment and benefits to same-sex partners.

During their interviews, most out gay personnel spontaneously raised the topic of current debates over extending benefits to same-sex partners. Like other observers we contacted, gay soldiers interviewed for this study were largely untroubled by original concerns over morale, unit cohesion, and retention that surrounded the 1992 decision to lift the ban. Rather, they are focused on pressuring the ADF to fulfill what they believe to be legally binding obligations to extend equal treatment to same-sex domestic partners under Australian law. In fact, when asked to speculate on how the lifting of the ban may have affected the well-being of the Australian Forces, most respondents first focused on their frustrations over same-sex partner issues. Tellingly, these reactions suggest that most out gay soldiers, like the ADF and Australian society more generally, find the question of whether allowing gays to serve has reduced the performance capabilities of the Armed Forces almost impossible to fathom. They have instead moved on to other, more germane concerns.

E. SYNTHESIS AND CONCLUSION

Systematic evidence concerning the lifting of the Australian ban on gays and lesbians in the military is scarce. This report attempts to redress the gap by drawing together and comparing the findings and observations of informed observers from a variety of vantage points in the policy domain. Certainly, any one piece of evidence by itself cannot stand as a comprehensive appraisal of outcomes associated with the change. Nonetheless, taken together, the data presented in this report make a convincing and credible case that, notwithstanding uneven and partial implementation of the policy, the 1992 inclusion of self-described gay and lesbian soldiers into the Australian Defence Forces has not led to any perceptible decline in operational effectiveness, morale, unit cohesion, retention, or attrition. In fact, ADF officials and a number of other observers, including commanders and soldiers, believe that changes associated with the policy have contributed to a working environment that is freer from the burdensome and unproductive consequences of mistrust, misunderstanding, and misjudgment that at times compromised the integrity of units in the past. As part of a broader commitment to equity in the ADF, then, the policy change has been a success.

While the general consensus in the findings above is clear, a close look at the evidence also reveals a number of concerns. Isolated instances of discrimination and harassment still exist, and some service branches may be less proactive in their policies than others. These difficulties may be even more pervasive among the ranks of heterosexual women, who experience higher rates of harassment than gay males. From the perspective of gay and lesbian soldiers and their allies, the failure of the ADF to extend benefits that are accorded to heterosexual spouses to same-sex partners stands as a reminder of a partially-fulfilled mission. At the same time, however, the fact that the debate over gays in the military has shifted away from the question of whether homosexual soldiers undermine military performance also stands as a testament to the success of the inclusive policy.

F. SOURCES

(1992). Australian military maintains ban on homosexuals. Agence France Presse. Canberra. 18 June.

(1992). Armed forces gay ban should end, Australian government told. Agence France Presse. Canberra. 18 September.

(1992). Australia to drop ban on gays in military. Agence France Presse. Canberra. 23 November.

(1992). Veterans and War Hero Angry Over Lifting of Gay Ban. Associated Press. Canberra, Australia.24 November.

(1992). Australia lifts ban on homosexuals in ADF. Xinhua General Overseas News Service. Canberra. 24 November.

(1997). Inquiry into Sexuality Discrimination. Canberra, Australian Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee: 10 pp.

(1999). Assessment Guidelines: Defence Officer Joint Competencies, Australian Defence Force: 12 pp.

(1999). Defence Instructions (General) -- Discrimination, Harassment, Sexual Offences, Fraternisation, and other Unacceptable Behavior in the Australian Defence Force. Canberra. Defence Instruction (General) PERS 35-3.

(2000). FED: RSL chief says gays should not be in the army. AAP (Australian Associated Press). Sydney. 4 March.

(2000). Sydney’s gay parade undimmed by church tirade. Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Sydney. 4 March.

(2000). Croome attacks RSL on homosexual “untruths”. ABIX: Australian Business Intelligence. 16 May.

Agostino, K. (1997). “Masculinity, Sexuality, and Life On Board Her Majesty’s Royal Australian Ships.” Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies 2(1).

Agostino, K. (1998a). “She’s a good hand”: Navy women’s strategies in masculinist workplaces.” Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies 3(1): 1-22.

Agostino, K. (1998b). “The making of warriors: men, identity and military culture.” Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies 3(2): 58-75.

Anderson, T. (1994). Gay Australian soldiers said AIDS risk. United Press International. Sydney. 24 June.

Anonymous. “Fair Go Course -- For Staff of ADF Career Management Agencies.” Australian Defence Force: 47 pp.

Anonymous (1997). “Burton and Quinn Reports Released”: ADF press release. 2 pp.

Anonymous (1999). Chronology of Women in the Australian Military, Australian Defence Force.

Baldwin, J. (1993). Other Armies Accept Gays, But Many Remain in Closet. Associated Press. London. 27 January.

Chapman, A. (1996). “Australian Anti-Discrimination Law and Sexual Orientation: Some Observations on Terminology and Scope.” E Law: Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law 3(3): 13.

Chulov, M. (2000). Gays Should Not Be in the Army: RSL. The Australian. Sydney.

Clack, P. (1999). AFP Lauded For View On Same-Sex Spouses. The Canberra Times. Canberra. 14 March.

Croome, R. (1992). A Submission to the ALP Caucus Committee on the Australian Defence Force Policy on Homosexuality. Canberra.

Croome, R. (1999). We Should All Look After Our Troops Loved Ones. J. Wilson. Canberra, The Canberra Times. 22 September.

Dandeker, C. (1994). “New times for the military: some sociological remarks on the changing role and structure of the armed forces of the advanced societies.” British Journal of Sociology 45(4): 637-654.

Feldman, E. A. (1998). Testing the Force: HIV and Discrimination in the Australian Military, Yale University Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS.

Fisher, L. (1993). Armed and Gay. Maclean’s. 24 May.

Hawke, A. (1999). Defence Women’s Network: 10.

International Lesbian and Gay Association. (2000). World Legal Survey -- Australia: Federal, International Lesbian and Gay Association.

Lancaster, J. (1992). Many Allies Allow Gays in the Military; Canada, Australia Are Latest to Drop Exclusionary Policy. Washington Post: A1. 30 November.

Marshallsea, T. (2000). UK: Britain to follow Australian Model of gay tolerant army. AAP (Australian Associated Press). London. 12 January.

Munro, C. (1992). Allowing Gays in Armed Forces Stirs Debate in Australia. Kyodo News Service. Sydney.

Reuters, F. (1992). Australia Overturns Its Ban on Gays in the Armed Forces. Los Angeles Times. Sydney, Australia: A12. 24 November.

Schmitt, E. (1993). Gay Soldiers No Problem Elsewhere, Experts Say. The New York Times. Washington, DC: A16. 30 April.

Smith, H. (1992). Homosexuality and the Australian Defence Force: Individual Rights vs Organizational Realities. Canberra, Australian Defence Studies Centre: 30.

Smith, H. (1995). “The Dynamics of Social Change and the Australian Defence Force.” Armed Forces and Society 21(4): 531-551.

Spencer, G. (1992). Lifting of Gay Ban Softens Australia’s Tough Man Image. Associated Press. Sydney, Australia. 9 December.

U.K. Ministry of Defence. (1996). Report of the Homosexuality Policy Assessment Team. London, UK Ministry of Defence.

United States General Accounting Office (1993). Homosexuals in the Military: Policies and Practices of Foreign Countries. Washington D.C., U.S. General Accounting Office: 51.

Wallace, C. P. (1994). Gay Australian Takes Complaint to U.N. Panel -- And Wins; Tasmania: Condemnation of State’s Sodomy laws Stirs Fierce Debate. Island Rebuffs Committee’s Call for Change. Los Angeles Times. Hobart, Australia: A4. 10 September.

Ward, S. (1995). Australia rebuffs UK rule on gay troops: “Now we have another persecution. Of course they don’t kill gay people in this country. They just ruin their lives.” Two men hounded out the services. The Independent (London). London: 1. 11 March.

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Interviews

Academic experts

Agostino, Katerina, lecturer in sociology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. 2000. Interview by authors, 8 August.

Smith, Hugh, associate professor, school of politics, University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra, Australia. 2000. Interview by authors, 20 August.

Pettman, Jan, Political Science Department, Australian National University. Interview by authors, 12 September.

Senior military officials

Gates, Commodore R.W., Royal Australian Navy. 2000. Interview by authors, 13 September.

Grey, Bronwen, director, Defence Equity Organisation. 2000. Interview by authors, 17 August.

Renshaw, Squadron Leader C. P., Royal Australian Air Force. 2000. Interview by authors, 15 September.

NGO and other expert observers

Croome, Rodney, co-convenor, Australian Council on Gay and Lesbian Rights. 2000. Interview by authors, 17 August.

Livingstone, Flight Sergeant Mark, Royal Australian Air Force. 2000. Interview by authors, 22 August.

Mills, David, reporter, Sydney Star-Observer. 2000. Interview by authors, 12 September.

Moore, Eugene, Full Spectrum, Ltd. 2000. 14 August.

Philips, Major General (ret’d) Peter, President, Returned and Services League. 2000. Interview by authors, 8 August.

Sidoti, Chris, Australian Human Rights Commissioner. 2000. Interview by authors, 18 August.

‘Out’ military personnel

Edwards, Colin, former enlisted personnel, Australian Defence Forces. 2000. Interview by authors, 12 September.

Little, Captain Emma, Royal Australian Army, army psychologist. 2000. Interview by authors, 12 September.

Livingstone, Flight Sergeant Mark, Royal Australian Air Force. 2000. Interview by authors, 22 August.

McClennan, Medical Corps Sergeant Scott. 2000. Interview by authors, 31 August.

Renshaw, Squadron Leader Chris. P., Senior Marketing Director, Defence Force Recruiting Organization. 2000. Interview by authors, 31 August.

Seah, Squadron Leader Michael, Senior Medical Officer, RAAF Base Pearce. 2000. Interview by authors, 13 September.

Stuht, Andrew, enlisted personnel, Royal Australian Navy. 2000. Interview by authors, 25 August.