European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 18, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday december 18, 1992 commentary the stars and stripes Page 13gay ban poses Tough questions for Clinton William of Buckley recently we be opined on the question of homosexuals and the military. As everyone knows the decision will be president elect Clinton a to make very soon whether to modify the existing ban and if so How. My first thought is to the effect that a surely common sense and experience Call for eliminating the discriminatory provisions that now hypothetically keep All Gays out of the military Many do not reveal their inclinations enter the forces and serve honorable. There is simply no record of distinctive Gay vulnerability in these services to justify categorical As distinguished from particular  subsequently we pondered the question of the average Gay discharges from the military four per Day according to the most recent figures Over the past 10 years and asked a what were they discharged for a was it because they were somehow identified As homosexuals or were they acting aggressively or seductively As Gays on military bases a communication from an officer in the marines who has engaged these questions advises us that a Udod directive 1332.14 is concerned primarily with homosexual conduct and homosexuals Are generally discharged because of conduct violations e.g., a caught in the act aboard ship soliciting another service Mem or Etc. A having counselled personnel accused of homosexual behaviour and having reviewed cases involving charges of homosexuality i have yet to come across a Case where a person was discharged who denied having engaged in homosexual  a recent Issue of the new Republic weighed in on the subject and we read a then there Are the incidents that took place Between january and May this year on the Navy ships Independence and Blue Ridge. More than 20 sailors from these two ships were court Martiale or discharged for homosexuality although Only two of them were found to have committed a homosexual act on a  the Marine officer reminds us that a Bill Clinton has already said that anyone denied the right to serve in the military should be denied that privilege a on the basis of behaviour not  a the officer then cites a recent University of Chicago Survey whose findings Are that for the . Population As a whole the estimated number of sex partners since age 18 is 7.15 8.67 for those never married. These numbers contrast with the findings of a major study by the Kinsey Institute Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg homosexuality a study of diversity among men and women Simon and schuster 1978which reports that 43 percent of the homosexual men surveyed estimated that they had sex with 500 or More partners 28 percent with 1,000 or More partners. In the same study 79 percent of the White male homosexuals surveyed said that More than half of their partners were strangers. Seventy percent said More than half of their sexual partners were men with whom they had sex Only once. And the american journal of Public health 1985, up. 493-496reports that among homosexuals the number of contacts since the Advent of aids has reduced from 76 to 47 per year. Several questions arise. One of them of course asks whether the sampling of homosexuals done by Kinsey it Al. Was representative. To reach for an extreme analogy a questionnaire directed to inhabitants of sing sing would reveal a higher rate of crime than a questionnaire directed to the first 2,000 names in the Boston Telephone directory. But let us assume that although homosexual monogamy is hardly unusual there is manifestly a higher incidence of promiscuity among Gays. But the principal question unanswered by any of the above has to do with whether the military should concern itself with the sexual activity of its personnel when such activity is conducted outside military premises. If the writer for the new Republic has got it straight we appear to have 18 sailors discharged even though they weren to engaging in sexual activity on ship. How was it known that they were Gay and was the military justified in expelling them after detecting them As such Dod directive 1332.14 reads a homosexuality is incompatible with military  this would appear on the face of it to be simply wrong Given the record of honorable service in the military by Many homosexuals. But it goes on a the presence in the military environment of persons who engage in homosexual conduct or who by their statements demonstrate a propensity to engage in homosexual conduct seriously impairs the accomplishment of the military  How exactly sure the Soldier who proclaims a i am Gay a is acting provocatively in an environment in which eccentricity Isnit encouraged. A High school teacher who announces a i am Gay is and ought to be less secure than the Gay teacher who practices his irregularities without preaching them. But Clinton is now going to have to answer the question he himself raised namely whether a a status homosexuality is one thing a be Havior a the practice of the act even off military premises a is another. C univ Oral Pross . Must first curb its own resurgent racism millions of americans Are expressing revulsion Over the Rise of nazi Era hatreds and atrocities in Germany. Recent developments Are appalling in Molln the Home of a turkish family that had lived in Germany for More than 20 years was firebombed in late november. A woman and two children were killed and nine people were injured. In Wuppertal two skinheads murdered and set afire a Man they believed erroneously to be jewish. We americans should deplore but without Sanctimony this resurgence of hate violence in Germany. We must View it with two truisms in mind a bigotry ethnic and racial hatreds the dark Side of Many a nature can never be expunged from human life. They can Only be controlled. A in every nation town or place Wise ind Brave political leadership is the key to restraining the mob mentality and retaining relative Tranquillity. In Germany jews gypsies and recent Carl t. Rowan immigrants Are accusing Helmut Kohls government of caving in to the Neo nazis and others motivated by xenophobic fears and hatreds. The evidence is overwhelming that the Kohl government has been timid at Best in responding to hate orgies that have taken the lives of at least 16 people. We americans must face up to the truth that in the last 12 years we have tolerated the growth of a skinhead movement Here of violent acts by people advocating aryan supremacy of jew waiters on College campuses and in the mean streets and of a resurgence of the Kun flux klan. In suburban Maryland we recently saw a White Man convicted of a Wanton assault on a Black female stranger in which he doused her body with lighter fluid Ami tried to set her aflame. Liver since Ronald Reagan opened his first presidential Campaign in Philadelphia miss., where three civil rights workers had been murdered the violent bigots and the silent haters have figured that they could come out from under the rocks and Rule America. I am not urging self righteousness in saying that we Are in an Era when Germany lacking bold moral leadership is succumbing to hatred while the ., with new leadership is about to climb out of the bunkers of bigotry. I say that Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary will become towering figures opposing bigotry advocating Equality of Opportunity primarily because they understand that whether in Yugoslavia Germany the Middle East or new Yorkus Crown Heights hatred is a corrosive Force that consumes All who embrace it. If we can put an end to americans Long lurch into resurgent racism perhaps we will have a moral right to Tell the germans what to do. C North americas rid Cate