Spring fever or March madness—take your pick. Whatever the explanation, gay-rights activists, gay veterans and a retired Marine Corps general grabbed headlines last week both on Capitol Hill and outside the White House. And it all happened the same day, Thursday, March 18, as members of Congress began reviewing a report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimating the costs of healthcare reform.
That morning the Senate Armed Forces Committee heard testimony once again over President Barack Obama's call to repeal the military's ban on openly gay service, a policy commonly known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ( DADT ) . Committee members heard from a panel of three former active duty military officers. Testifying in favor repeal were former Air Force Major Mike Almy and former Navy Lieutenant junior grade Jenny Kopfstein, openly gay service members both of whom were discharged under DADT.
Opposing the repeal was retired ( since 1997 ) Marine Corps Gen. John J. Sheehan, a former NATO commander. It was two of his "out there" remarks that raised eyebrows stateside and in Europe.
Sheehan said his opposition to repealing DADT stemmed from "my experience in a combat environment" during the Vietnam War when a "homosexual Marine molested another Marine." The problem, Sheehan explained, "was not the discipline of the unit, but what it did to the cohesion of the organization."
First, he explained, "The private first class did not believe he was being supportive. Second, people took sides. You cannot afford to take a unit out of combat for three to four days while you sort out these kinds of issues. The enemy does not allow" that "luxury."
But Illinois Sen. Roland Burris would have none of it, asking, "General, do you have any idea how many heterosexual rapes there are?"
Sheehan, said, "last numbers" showed "87 percent of a 333,200-something report were male-on-female."
When pressed by Burris on the percent of male-on-male rapes, Sheehan replied, "Seven percent."
In even more eye-popping testimony, the general suggested that openly gay service members made poor soldiers, citing, as an example, the Dutch armed forces. After the Dutch permitted "open homosexuality," that "led to a force that was ill-equipped to go to war," Sheehan said. "The case in point that I'm referring to is when the Dutch were required to defend Srebrenica against the Serbs. The battalion was under-strength, poorly led, and the Serbs came into town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off, and executed them. That was the largest massacre in Europe since World War II."
This time, the patience of Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., wore thin. The committee's chairman asked if Dutch military officials had told Sheehan specifically that Srebrenica fell "because there were gay soldiers there."
The general said, "Yes. They included that as part of the problem," adding, "It was part of the liberalization of the Dutch military—that was a contributing factor."
Voicing disbelief, Levin said, "We all remember Srebrenica. Any effort to connect that failure on the part of the Dutch to the fact that they had homosexuals" serving openly "is totally off target."
In rejecting Sheehan's comments, the Dutch ambassador to the United States told the Washington Post, "I take pride in the fact that lesbians and gay men have served openly and with distinction in the Dutch military forces for decades, such as in Afghanistan at the moment," said Renee Jones-Bos.
For his part, Almy agreed with Levin. "Sexual orientation was a complete non-issue for both Americans and the Dutch," said Almy, who served in the field alongside Dutch officers and enlisted.
In fact, "From my experience with DADT, it's a bit of a running joke and mockery among gays and straights alike," he said, "from the standpoint everyone knows gays and lesbians are serving openly and often times are valued and patriotic members of their units who make valuable contributions to their units."
Asked about her openly gay service, Kopfstein said, "I only had positive experiences with my shipmates and people I served with. Nobody had any complaints taking orders from me. No one asked to be moved out of sharing a stateroom with me."
Meanwhile, a growing sense of frustration and impatience among gay-rights activists' surged across town at 1600 Pennsylvania when Lt. Dan Choi and Capt. James Pietrangelo II handcuffed themselves to gates outside the White House, an act of civil disobedience that resulted in their arrest by the United States Park Police for failure to obey a lawful order.
An Arab language specialist, Choi is a founder of Knights Out, a West Point alumni organization for LGBT soldiers. Pietrangelo, who unsuccessfully challenged to DADT in court, was discharged under DADT for being gay. Choi's discharge is still pending.
Sure enough, the White House incident got Robert Gibbs, the president's press secretary talking. Asked at his daily briefing if Obama had any plans to meet with Choi, Gibbs replied, "I don't believe there are any meetings scheduled today."
Choi and Pietrangelo were held overnight and arraigned in D. C. Superior Court on Friday, March 18, according to Sgt. David Schlosser, who said both men were taken from the White House to the Park Police's Anacostia station for booking.
The Secret Service arrested Fresno, Calif.-based activist Robin McGehee, who served as co-chair for the National Equality March last October and is now associated with a new grassroots organization, GetEqual.org .
"Robin placed the handcuffs on the White House fence and was seen as an accessory," said local gay-rights activist Paul Yandura, who attended the protest. McGehee, however, was let go without a charge but with an arrest record. She also paid a $35 fine, according to Yandura.
During then-President Bill Clinton's 1996 re-election campaign, Yandura served as liaison to the LBT community and subsequently in the White House. Voicing frustration over the lack of LGBT legislative action on Capitol Hill, Yandura said, "They've made all the same excuses for 15 years ago—it's not convenient," he said, referring to the White House and Congress. "I'm done with it," Yandura added. "We're gonna take it to them."
