Clinton Aides Urge Quick End to Military Ban on Gays : Pentagon: Proposal would leave questions about standards of conduct to be decided by defense officials.

President-elect Bill Clinton’s top advisers are recommending that he sweep away the nation’s longstanding prohibition against gays in the military by issuing an immediate and unequivocal ban on discrimination instead of finessing the explosive issue by ordering further study, knowledgeable sources have told The Times.

That recommendation, if accepted, would cap a debate that has raged for weeks over whether Clinton should end such discrimination “with the stroke of a pen” or compromise by yielding to military concerns and ordering further study before acting.

Aides said consultations with the military are continuing and that a formal recommendation is expected to go to Clinton next week, allowing him to issue his directive within the first two weeks of his presidency.

The directive would be issued in a “memorandum of instruction” to the secretary of defense. It would require the military to halt investigations and disciplinary actions against gays and to stop asking service members and enlistees about their sexual orientation.

But it would leave unresolved standards of conduct that would apply to gay and lesbian service members. While openly gay and lesbian military personnel no longer could be discharged on the basis of sexual preference alone, military officials probably would be permitted to define the limits of acceptable behavior by homosexuals while on military installations and while performing their duties.

Under a memorandum of instruction, the new defense secretary--Clinton has nominated Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.)--would oversee decisions concerning whether the military should extend dependent benefits to the homosexual partners of service members and whether gay social clubs should be permitted to function on U.S. bases.

Other issues left to the defense secretary and military leaders would include whether homosexual personnel should be permitted to express their sexual preferences openly under circumstances that could be regarded as disruptive and whether gay or lesbian service members would be permitted to live together in base housing.

The military has strict regulations about sexual behavior among its members who work together. Clinton has said those rules would continue to apply to homosexuals and heterosexuals alike.

For Clinton, adoption of the recommendation would represent a compromise between military leaders, who have protested lifting the ban, and gay and lesbian activists. Those activists are hoping that Clinton will lift the ban by issuing an executive order--the vehicle presidents traditionally use for bold, historic action. President Harry S. Truman, for instance, issued an executive order to racially integrate the military services.

Clinton advisers, however, favor using a new, less symbolic mechanism to lift the ban. A “memorandum of understanding” has the same legal force as an executive order, they said, but does not carry with it the same historic significance.

They view the distinction as important because they believe that the action will bring strong opposition from military leaders, which they hope to mute to some extent by avoiding use of an executive order.

Transition aides also hope to shield Clinton from military and congressional reaction by using language in the memorandum that would specifically direct Aspin to carry out the task of lifting the ban, rather than simply proclaiming the President’s order to lift it.

“Clinton understands there are two issues here: He can’t waffle and he doesn’t want to expend a lot of political goodwill upfront on this issue,” said one adviser to the Clinton transition team. “What they’re trying to do is find the best mechanism to achieve the commitment and not hurt him.”

Knowledgeable sources said using a memorandum of instruction to lift the ban is the brainchild of Clinton friend John Holum, a Washington attorney who was asked to review the President-elect’s options on the matter.

Holum and Aspin are expected to discuss the proposal in the next several days, along with several other options that Holum considers less advisable politically. One of those lesser options, sources said, would be for Clinton to issue an executive order.

A memorandum of instruction, the sources said, would definitively rule out establishing a commission to study the issue, a step that many gay and lesbian activists oppose as a stalling tactic. Many senior military leaders have informally suggested creating such a commission.

Other Clinton advisers said the memo of instruction is a way to move swiftly to change the policy without excluding the possibility of an executive order later, after civilian defense officials and military leaders had reviewed the matter.

“The policy will be lifted early, and I don’t think Bill Clinton . . . is backing off one bit,” said one activist working with a gay and lesbian interest group. “I feel very good about where things are right now.

“I think the military is preparing for this change right now,” the activist said. “People throughout the Defense Department are talking. People are getting ready. It’s coming, and I have every reason to have faith in Clinton’s commitment.”

But some gay activists said anything short of an executive order will be regarded as waffling by Clinton. They said they plan to press Clinton to reject Holum’s proposal but acknowledged that he probably will accept it, given his penchant for political compromise and his wariness about generating significant military resistance early in his Administration.

Whatever option Clinton chooses, activists have told him that he must act quickly before opposition solidifies.

“First we have to stop the witch hunts,” said Robert Bray, spokesman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. “One thing we’re not willing to compromise on is yet another study. There have been several already, and they have all concluded that gays can and should be allowed to serve in the military.”

During his first day of confirmation hearings on Thursday, Aspin told senators that Clinton will move quickly to lift the ban.

“With Bill Clinton’s election and his pledge during the campaign to take this issue head on . . . we are going to take it head on,” Aspin told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“I think that there’s no way to avoid the issue, or slide around it, or try and patch up the whole issue and let it go away,” he said. “We want this issue to be dealt with very, very carefully, but we want it to be dealt with very, very deliberately.”