Military Using Polls in Debate Over Gays : Policy: Surveys by Army and Air Force show troops tend to oppose ending homosexual ban. Critics say such personal opinions are irrelevant.

The military services, gearing up to fight a change in the policy toward homosexuals, are arming themselves with opinion polls that show military personnel widely oppose the admission of gay men and lesbians in the armed forces, Pentagon officials said.

The surveys are the first to measure the opinions of the military’s rank and file on the issue, and they provide an unprecedented gauge of opposition to President Clinton’s proposal to lift a longstanding prohibition on gays and lesbians in the services.

The results are certain to spark heated debate on the impact that lifting the ban would have on morale and discipline among the troops, and whether anti-gay opinions, which opponents of the ban view as a form of bigotry, should be allowed to influence the ultimate decision.

The President announced last week that the military would stop discharge proceedings against homosexuals for six months while Administration, congressional and military officials consult on the issue. The armed services, however, will be allowed to take other, less severe punitive measures against gay men and lesbians during the six-month period.

Results of the military polls illustrate a dramatic contrast between the civilian public’s views of the issue and those held by members of the armed forces.

In a number of recent polls, American public opinion has been roughly split over lifting the ban. But polls conducted for the Air Force and Army suggest a much greater level of opposition among rank and file members.

As a result, the findings have become hot political properties, suppressed by one service and actively controlled by Defense Secretary Les Aspin, who is struggling to rein in lobbying by the armed services against Clinton’s initiative.

In one Air Force survey, conducted in November by an independent polling firm, roughly 75% of Air Force personnel who responded said they oppose a change in policy, while 15% indicated no objections to such a change. The size of the Air Force polling sample could not be learned.

The Air Force, recognizing the sensitivity of its polling data, has held up the release of its poll. But a Pentagon official familiar with it offered results of the survey’s findings.

An Army poll of soldiers, conducted in December by a pair of independent military sociologists, found similar results. Of 478 Army men questioned, 75% said they believed that allowing openly gay soldiers in the service “would be very disruptive of discipline.” And 90% said they would feel uncomfortable having to share a room with a homosexual. A majority of Army women polled also opposed changing the policy, although to a slightly lesser degree.

Three-quarters of the Army men agreed that they would feel uncomfortable “if there were some homosexuals in my unit” and 74% agreed with the statement that “homosexuality is abnormal and perverted.”

The surveys appear to support claims by military leaders that allowing openly gay men and lesbians into the ranks will cause disruption, sagging morale and even violence. But some experts argued that opinion polls do not reflect the actual effects that such a change of policy would have on troops, who are subject to strict military discipline and whose values are often imposed from the top down.

“People who don’t want this to happen are going to rely on these surveys,” said the Brookings Institution’s Lawrence Korb, a former Pentagon official. “People who are opposed to the initiative know what opinions are, and they take a survey to support their point of view, to say, ‘Well, we’d love to do this but, see, we’ll have this problem.’ Nobody would give a damn what the troops thought if the military’s leaders backed the policy.”

After all, asked Korb, “do we have surveys to ask troops whether they want to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning? Do we ask them whether they support having a curfew or whether they think we should let women in the barracks or have drinking at lunch?”

In the days since Clinton agreed to the six-month consultation period, military officials have begun preparing for the debate by taking steps that include conducting more polls.

Army officials said Army Chief of Staff Gen. Gordon Sullivan has created a study group headed by Gen. Thomas C. Jones, an Army criminal investigator who is currently the service’s director of human services. Jones’ group is to compile and assess data on the issue, and is preparing a new, more detailed round of polls to go to the field in the next several weeks. The Marine Corps also is readying polls.

The Navy, however, has adamantly refused to use polls or to establish a planning group to draw up contingency plans for any change in policy, believing that such planning would undercut its opposition to lifting the ban, Pentagon officials said.

The Army study, conducted by Charles Moskos and Laura Miller of Northwestern University, details especially high levels of concerns among young enlisted men. Sixty-eight percent of the males polled said they would plan to stay in the Army if current regulations on gays and lesbians continue to apply, while 45% said they would “definitely not stay” if the ban were lifted.

Among noncommissioned male officers--the senior sergeants that lead small Army units--concern over removing the ban was slightly less pronounced. Of those soldiers, 88% said they would stay in the Army under current regulations, while 25% said that if the ban were lifted, they would leave the Army.

Among officers surveyed, 23% said they would leave if the proposal to lift the ban is carried out.