MILITARY MONDAY

Walk-in test confirms military's gay ban
Three young adults inquired at a recruiting station. They were politely turned away.



The recruiting ads say there are "over 200 ways to be a soldier."

Being openly gay is still not one of them.

Yesterday, as part of a nationwide campaign challenging the U.S. military's 13-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy toward homosexuals, three young adults walked into the Army recruiting station at 125 N. Broad St.

The response they got, they said, was a courteous - but definite - no.

"They said we were morally and administratively ineligible for the U.S. military," said Jarrett Lucas, 20, of South Philadelphia, a recent Drexel University engineering student.

"They were very courteous, but they said that if we were truly interested in enlisting we'd have to conceal our sexual identities," Lucas added.

Lucas, joined by Shane Bagwell, 18, a high school graduate from Wyndmoor in Montgomery County, and Marissa Cotroneo, 19, an aspiring psychology major from Scranton, spent about an hour talking with Army recruiters and taking a practice qualifying test before leaving part of an Army of none.



The commander of the Army's Philadelphia recruiting station, Sgt. First Class Bell - she refused to give her first name - confirmed the trio's account of the meeting but declined to comment further.

The "don't ask, don't tell" policy was implemented in 1993 by the Clinton administration in an attempt to accommodate homosexuals in the military without actually repealing the U.S. military's ban on gays.

The policy's rationale was to focus on sexual conduct - straight or gay - rather than sexual orientation. But homosexuals complained that, unlike their heterosexual colleagues, they had to keep their sexual identities secret or risk losing their careers.



The U.S. General Accounting Office has estimated that 11,000 service members have been dismissed since 1993 under "don't ask, don't tell," including 800 with critically needed skills in medicine, languages, combat engineering or flying.

All three who attempted to enlist yesterday were associated with the Right to Serve Campaign of Soulforce, a Lynchburg, Va., group that campaigns for equal treatment for homosexuals and other sexual minorities.

Right to Serve estimates that there are 65,000 homosexuals serving in the U.S. military and that 41,000 more would like to serve if they could be open about their sexual orientation.

Right to Serve conducted its first attempt by three openly gay people to enlist on May 30 near Minneapolis.



ommy Atz, 26, of Wallingford, a gay activist who accompanied Lucas, Bagwell and Cotroneo to Philadelphia, said Right to Serve plans to conduct similar enlistment attempts in 25 to 30 U.S. cities during August and September.

The Philadelphia trio, he said, will likely return to hold sit-ins or picket in front of the Broad Street recruiting station.

The Right to Serve Campaign comes as a bipartisan group of 119 members of Congress has sponsored the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would let homosexuals serve openly in the U.S. military.

By Joseph A. Slobodzian



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