As for the war, its economic and strategic needs, and "psycho-sexual" anxieties, here's interesting news:
***** NYT March 25, 2003
Military Discharged Fewer Gays in 2002, Report Finds
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON, March 24 - The military discharged fewer gay service members last year than in any other year since 1996, according to a report by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
The study, to be released on Tuesday, said the Pentagon reported 906 discharges in all service branches, down from 1,273 in 2001.
Even with that lower figure, the military discharges about three lesbian, gay or bisexual service members every day, according to the defense network, a gay rights group that monitors the armed forces.
The Clinton administration adopted a military policy in 1993, known as "don't ask, don't tell," which allows gays to serve provided their sexual orientation does not become known. But if it is discovered or they volunteer the information, they can be discharged.
Until this year, the number of gay service members discharged had increased steadily, to 1,273 in 2001 from 870 in 1996.
With the American military facing conflicts around the world simultaneously, "the armed services just don't have a person they can lose," said C. Dixon Osburn, the executive director of the defense network.
Last year the Army discharged seven linguists trained in Arabic for being gay, despite a critical shortage of Arabic specialists, Mr. Osburn said.
The linguists worked at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif., the Army's principal language-training center. The Army said it was simply carrying out Defense Department policy.
The Navy discharged 218 sailors and the Air Force discharged 121 members, the lowest level for both branches since the policy was put into effect, the report showed.
But the Coast Guard increased its discharges last year to 29, from 14 the year before.
The Army discharged 429 soldiers, down from 638 in 2001. The Marine Corps discharged 109 people, compared with 115 in 2001.
Legal defense network officials said the reasons for the decline in discharges was unknown. But their report concluded that commanders were increasingly reluctant to discharge openly gay personnel, finding that they did not undermine unit cohesion.
The report cited a Marine memorandum from April 2002 written by an officer at the Twenty-Nine Palms Marine base in California.
"Homosexuals can and do serve honorably in the Marine Corps," the memorandum said. "Homosexuals can and do make some of the best Marines. Homosexuals are capable of military service and can and do perform as well as anyone else in the military."
The Defense Department did not respond today to a request for comment.
The report also stated that reports of harassment of gay, lesbian and bisexual soldiers had dropped.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/25/politics/25SOLD.html> *****
The report is consistent with what you would expect based upon studies of materialist historians of sexual matters like John D'Emilio. "Psycho-sexual" anxieties appear to be at best a dependent variable. -- Yoshie
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