Australia Overturns Its Ban on Gays in the Armed Forces

SYDNEY, Australia — The Labor government, after months of debate, Monday scrapped a ban on homosexuals joining the Australian armed forces, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Paul Keating said.

A late-night Cabinet meeting settled the issue. It had pitted Defense Minister Robert Ray against Atty. Gen. Michael Duffy, who has been pushing for the move on human rights grounds.

Ray had argued that homosexuals could threaten cohesion and morale in the military. Service chiefs were vehemently against lifting the ban, a stance backed by the National Federation of Defense Force Staff.

A Cabinet meeting in June reaffirmed the ban and endorsed military policy that homosexual behavior would result in dismissal from the forces.

But a six-member Labor committee, appointed to review whether the ban violated party policy and human rights covenants, voted 4 to 2 in September for the prohibition to be lifted.

Labor sources said Duffy’s case had been helped by the determination of U.S. President-elect Bill Clinton to allow homosexuals into the armed services, despite strong opposition from U.S. military and religious groups.