Chief Congressional Architect of Military's Gay Ban Ends Opposition to Openly Gay Service

Scholars React to Former Senator Sam Nunn's New Course

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., June 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Former Senator Sam Nunn told reporters today that "times change" and it is now time to reconsider the ban on openly gay service that he spearheaded as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1993. When "fifteen years go by on any personnel policy," he said, "it's appropriate to take another look at it -- see how it's working, ask the hard questions, hear from the military." Nunn said the starting point for review should be a "Pentagon study."

Nunn's comments come as his name is circulated as a possible vice presidential pick for Senator Barack Obama, the likely Democratic candidate for the White House. They also come three days after the death of Nunn's friend, Charles Moskos, the renowned military sociologist who was the chief intellectual powerhouse behind "don't ask, don't tell."

Taken together, experts said today, the news has shaken the landscape of the gay ban. "The opposition of two of the three giants behind 'don't ask, don't tell' has fallen in the space of a few days," said Dr. Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at the Palm Center, a UC-Santa Barbara think tank that studies gays in the military. The third main architect, said Frank, who will publish a book on the gay ban next year, was Colin Powell, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "We went from a three-legged to a one-legged dog in the same week," he said. "At this point, nothing but political inertia is propping this animal up."

Dr. Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, said Nunn blocked President Bill Clinton's efforts to lift the gay ban in 1993. Nunn counseled "caution," said Belkin, "and said, even then, that the issue should be studied very carefully before any action was taken." Belkin said that Nunn's call today for a Pentagon study was a good starting point.

"It makes sense," said Belkin, "so long as it's not used as a tactic to avoid heeding the evidence. Mountains of data now show that openly gay service does not undermine unit cohesion, and any debate over letting known gays serve should take that evidence into account."

First Call Analyst:
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Source: The Palm Center

CONTACT: Indra Lusero, Assistant Director, The Palm Center, University
of California, Santa Barbara, +1-805-893-5664, Lusero@palmcenter.ucsb.edu

Web site: http://www.palmcenter.ucsb.edu/

2008-06-03 21:03:33 0376812 PRNEWSWIRE