Fine Compromise --Let’s Move On : Clinton tries to settle gays-in-military issue

Long days of public argument and private negotiations involving President Clinton, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and senior congressional Democrats have produced a compromise on the contentious issue of homosexuals in the armed forces that should meet basic demands of justice and equity even as it seeks to address many of the deepest concerns of military leaders.

There will, of course, be those who condemn the compromise and fault Clinton for not simply disregarding the explosive objections expressed by the joint chiefs and in Congress and issuing an immediate executive order erasing the 50-year-old ban on service by known homosexuals in the military. Others will continue to contend that any change in the present policy sabotages military efficiency and morale and is thus wholly unacceptable. In fact, hope that the compromise will work derives precisely from the fact that it leaves no side wholly satisfied or wholly disappointed. Like most political compromises it probably does the best that can be done under the circumstances.

An immediate executive order striking down the ban on gays would have provoked a swift move in Congress to reinstate the prohibition. Sen. George J. Mitchell (D-Me.), the majority leader, has counseled privately that as many as 70 senators might vote to support an override. As it is, Republicans may yet try to block or undo what Clinton proposes doing. Similarly, a decision by Clinton to defer acting promptly on this issue would not only have broken a campaign promise but, worse, left a gross injustice unrectified.

Clinton’s instincts have been right on this from the beginning. To bar homosexuals from the armed forces simply on the unsupported assertion that--as a 1982 directive issued by the Reagan Administration put it--”homosexuality is incompatible with military service” is an unsustainable denial of equal protection of the law. That view, coincidentally (or not so coincidentally), was expressed by U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. in a ruling in Los Angeles on Thursday that reinstated Navy Petty Officer Keith Meinhold, who was discharged last year after acknowledging his homosexuality.

The compromise announced Friday delays until July 15 an executive order removing the ban, although in the interim questions on sexual orientation will be dropped from induction applications. But current personnel policies related to this issue will remain in effect until July. Clinton says close study will be given over the next six months to “the real practical problems” that are of such concern to opponents of a policy change. These include personal privacy issues, maintaining morale and discipline, and dealing with possible claims by homosexuals for shared base housing and spousal benefits.

Clinton concedes that the compromise falls short of giving him all he wanted, but defends it as a substantial step forward. Fair enough. The hope now is that the compromise will shelve a politically enervating controversy that probably could have been largely evaded had Clinton done the politically wise thing and consulted in advance with the joint chiefs and such congressional barons as Sen. Sam Nunn, the influential chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Chalk it up as a learning experience.

And now, please, can the new Administration and Congress move on to those other matters of compelling national concern that cry out for attention? Such as the economy?