Military patrons of gay bars and paraders for gay rights are safe, but hand-holders are still liable to get drummed out of the service under new Pentagon regulations.
The rules sent to field commanders Wednesday seek to guide them through the intricacies of the new policy of "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" that prohibits homosexual conduct but ends discharges based merely on a person's sexual orientation.President Clinton was battered early in his administration by his attempt to lift the ban, and the policy that has emerged reflects the resistance of Congress and the military to permitting openly gay men and women to serve.
It also leaves unresolved several lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the ban, and the question of whether the "don't ask" concept can work in a military traditionally hostile to gays.
"If they simply put into effect a policy that punishes service members for declaring that they are gay or lesbian, such a policy cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny," said Lanny Breuer, attorney for Sgt. Justin Elzie, a Marine who is suing the Pentagon for trying to discharge him because he announced he is gay.
"We fully expect that there will be lawsuits on this," Defense Secretary Les Aspin said in announcing the regulations. "But we would like to fight them out on the new policy rather than on the old policy."
He argued that since Congress, the military and the administration have backed the changes, the courts may find reason to support it.
"This was an enormously divisive and emotional issue," Aspin said. "I don't want to imply that we think we have unanimous consent here. But we have proceeded to capture the broad middle with this policy."
Naval Petty Officer Keith Meinhold, who was discharged in August 1992 after disclosing his homosexuality on national television, said Wednesday that Aspin "has utterly failed to solve the issue of gays in the military."
Meinhold said the scenarios for when not to open an investigation of a service member were meant to protect heterosexuals. Meinhold re-enlisted in the Navy this month, after a federal appeals court in Meinhold's court case upheld a judge's order banning discrimination against gays in the military.