Gay-rights groups accused the U.S. military of hypocrisy Wednesday after it disclosed a sharp reduction in the dismissal of gays since the beginning of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Pentagon said it dismissed 612 people for homosexuality in its most recent fiscal year, fewer than half the 1,227 dismissed in fiscal 2001.
The figures were released Tuesday, after the top military officer, U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, drew criticism for describing homosexual acts as immoral, a statement he later characterized as a personal belief.
Gay-rights groups said the numbers show the hypocrisy of the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which forbids commanders from asking the sexual orientation of service members but requires gays and lesbians to keep their sexual orientation private.
“It is interesting to watch rates of discharge go down when the military needs people the most,” said Bob Kearney, a senior public policy advocate for Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group.
The decline in dismissals comes amid simultaneous wars that have strained the military’s manpower.
“It is not appropriate for the U.S. military to tell lesbian and gay Americans that they are worthy of fighting and dying in a war zone, but unworthy of serving their country on the home front during peacetime,” said Steve Ralls, a spokesman for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which provides legal help to military gays facing dismissal.
More than 10,800 service members have been dismissed under “don’t ask, don’t tell” since President Clinton signed it into law in 1993.
The Defense Department has not changed its enforcement of the law during that time, a spokesman said.
“Any suggestion that somehow we were implementing the policy different five, 10 years ago than we are today, there’s just no basis in fact for that,” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
Gay-rights advocates said Congress appears for the first time in years to be willing to consider changing the policy.
A bill that would allow gays to serve openly in the military has attracted 114 co-sponsors. Bill sponsor Marty Meehan, a Massachusetts Democrat, is expected to hold a hearing this spring.