Assessment of the Plan to Lift the Ban on Homosexuals in the Military

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Excerpt from Assessment of the Plan to Lift the Ban on Homosexuals in the Military: Hearings Before the Military Forces and Personnel Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, First Session, Hearings Held July 21, 22 and 23, 1993 The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a.m. in room 2118, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Ike Skelton (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Opening Statement Of Hon. Ike Skelton, A Representative From Missouri, Chairman, Military Forces And Personnel Subcommittee Mr. Skelton. The subcommittee will now come to order. Today the subcommittee turns its attention to one of the most controversial issues confronting the nation today, lifting the ban on homosexuals in the military. The time constraints between the President's announcement and the markup is seven days, five days from now. Undoubtedly, we will write into law and codify the policy. We must, in our subcommittee and hence the committee, write it to be fair to all uniformed personnel, write it to ensure unit cohesion, to keep our fighting forces the best because second place does not count in the battlefield, and write it to meet the constitutional standards. All of this we must do within five days. Over the course of the next two days, the subcommittee will conduct four hearings to assess the plan announced by the President on Monday. During the morning and afternoon sessions today, the subcommittee will focus on understanding the President's policy, determining the level of support for that policy within the Department of Defense and determining if the policy is feasible, practical and understandable. Tomorrow there is another full day of hearings scheduled. The subcommittee will turn its attention to important legal questions, to determine if the policy is defendable and, of course, workable on an installation level, and most important, constitutionally. The statement of the President appears to continue the policy regarding homosexuals in the military which existed prior to January 1993. The policy seems to describe homosexuality as incompatible with military service, but it just does not say it clearly. With this policy, the President appears to have accepted the principle that attitudes among the people of a unit do make a difference and must be considered. This is the old policy with a new name and a couple of twists. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.