Clinton Rebuffs Critics on Gay Military Ban

After a weekend-long battering from critics who believe homosexuals should continue to be excluded from military service, President-elect Bill Clinton made clear Monday that he would not be dissuaded from his plan to end the prohibition.

At the same time, he reaffirmed his intention to consult further with military leaders before lifting the ban and was vague about whether he would begin that process before his January inauguration.

“I have made no decision on a timetable except that I want to firmly proceed, and I want to do it after consulting with military leaders,” he said.

He added, however, that he intended “to press forward . . . in an expeditious way early in the term . . . “ making clear that the consultations would not be a forum at which he might change his mind.

Senior aides said Clinton’s comments in a morning news conference were intended to enable him to reclaim an assertive role in the emotional debate. Loud complaints from critics in recent days had seemed to place the President-elect on the defensive on the issue.

An adviser involved in planning the strategy for the session said that in reasserting his view that homosexuals had a rightful place in the military, Clinton hoped “to make clear that this is something he’s committed to, and something that’s inevitable--one way on another.”

Another longtime adviser cast the issue in even broader terms. “One of the reasons he’s taking a hard line is to make quite clear that he is going to be commander in chief,” the adviser said. “This is his first act involving the military; if the generals object and he backs down, what does it say about who is going to run policy, him or the generals?”

For nearly four decades, the Pentagon has pursued an active policy of banning gay men and lesbians from the military and has continued to enforce the ban despite the likelihood that it will soon be changed.

Even as Clinton reasserted his position Monday, Navy attorneys were asking a federal judge in Los Angeles to reverse a court order that temporarily reinstated Petty Officer Keith Meinhold to duty at Moffett Naval Air Station. Meinhold, a 12 1/2-year veteran, had been discharged in August after publicly declaring his homosexuality during a televised interview.

Acknowledging that even top Democrats were sharply divided on whether the ban should be ended, Clinton took pains Monday to praise one of his sharpest critics on the issue, Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Nunn, he said, had offered a “compelling” argument that the inclusion of gays and lesbians in military units might compromise the privacy rights of heterosexuals within those groups.

The President-elect made clear, however, that he differs sharply with Nunn’s assertion that gays should be barred entirely.

Noting that about 17,000 gays had joined the military and were forced out over the last 10 years, Clinton contended that “the issue, therefore, is not whether there are gays in the military, it is whether they can be in the military without lying about it.”

Instead, the President-elect argued, the military should set a “very strict code of conduct” for sexual behavior by gays that would lead . . . to very firm and swift appropriate action,” such as “dismissal from the service or other appropriate sanctions,” should the code be violated.

“There is a great deal of difference between somebody doing something wrong and their status, condition in life,” Clinton said.

Aides to the President-elect privately said Clinton’s blunt language Monday was intended in large part to counter what they called Nunn’s overwrought warnings that a change in policy would endanger homosexuals.

Nunn made the statement on a Sunday news program in which he reiterated his opposition to a change in the policy.

If Clinton proceeds, Nunn cautioned, he should do so slowly.

“I think it ought to be studied as much as necessary to make sure that when he does implement it . . . the military’s fully prepared for it, and you don’t have . . . violence against homosexuals,” he said.

“If you did it overnight,” he said later, “I’d fear for the lives of people in the military. . . . I think there could be some very emotional feelings.”

A Clinton aide said Monday the President-elect “acknowledges that it’s difficult but he wants to make very clear that he’s not backing away.”

Clinton has indicated that the planned consultations with military leaders and others would help him determine how quickly and by what means the current prohibition should be lifted. Asked Monday whether Clinton was still likely to issue an executive order, his communications director, George Stephanopoulos, said: “That’s the presumption.”

While aides said Clinton’s language was intended both to clarify his position and perhaps quell some of the sharpest criticism, they conceded that they had no immediate hope of shifting attention from the issue.

“Until we’re able to fill the void with other hard news,” one top aide said resignedly, “it’s going to sit out there because it’s sexy, in both senses of the word.”

Times staff writer Art Pine in Washington contributed to this story.