Gay rights advocates are condemning a judge's decision upholding the Pentagon's ban on homosexuals in the military, while a conservative group says the ruling strengthens the nation's defense.
U.S. District Judge Oliver Gasch declared Monday that the armed forces must have the power to ban homosexuals if they are to protect soldiers and sailors from AIDS.Joseph C. Steffan, a former Naval Academy midshipman who acknowledged he was gay, had challenged the longstanding Defense Department policy as unconstitutional.
But the policy "of excluding homosexuals is rational" and doesn't violate the equal protection clause of the Fifth Amendment, Gasch wrote in a 35-page opinion.
The regulation "is directed, in part, at preventing those who are at the greatest risk of dying of AIDS from serving in the Navy and the other armed services," he said.
And it promotes "discipline, morale . . . a respected system of rank and command . . . morality and respect for the privacy interests of both officers and the enlisted," Gasch added.
"We find the decision distressing but not a big surprise," said Paula Ettelbrick of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a gay rights group in New York that represented Steffan.
She noted that Gasch three times at a hearing referred to Steffan as a "homo." Gasch said the fact that he used the word does not mean he is biased against homosexuals.
Gasch's ruling will be appealed to a federal appeals court.
The Rev. Lou Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, a national organization representing 8,000 conservative churches, praised Gasch's decision as "fair to the military and good for the nation's defense."
People "engaged in homosexual behavior have rights as individuals, but practicing such behavior in the military generates obvious unnecessary problems," said Sheldon.
"We look forward to ensuring that the issue is debated during the presidential campaign," said Gregory King of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, a 35,000-member gay advocacy group. He called the decision "terrible."
Steffan was in the top 10 percent of his class, and he was slated for duty on a nuclear submarine when his Naval Academy superiors learned of his sexual orientation a few months before his scheduled graduation in 1987. He resigned but later sued.
There was no evidence in Steffan's case that he had had sex relations with anybody, male or female.
But unless Steffan made some commitment to celibate living, "the presumption must be" that he "could one day have acted on his preferences in violation of regulations," Gasch wrote.