Spelling Out Why Gays in Uniform Live in Fear : Books: In ‘Conduct Unbecoming,’ Randy Shilts attacks the military for its ‘horrendous’ treatment of homosexuals. ‘They conduct witch hunts and purges,’ he says.

There are two reasons why Randy Shilts says he shouldn’t be talking.

First, he must conserve his strength while recovering from a collapsed lung, a complication of AIDS.

Second, the publishers of his next book, “Conduct Unbecoming,” threaten that “there will be no book” if the author doesn’t close his mouth until late April when the volume hits stores. St. Martin’s Press understandably wants interest pumped up when it will translate into sales, and not a week before.

So three minutes into a phone chat with a reporter, Shilts excuses himself to take another call and comes back laughing and groaning: “Oh God, that was my publisher. I’m really not allowed to talk.”

But the subject of gays in the military can’t be popped back in the bottle, to be uncorked when the time is right. Shilts decides to finish the very brief, rare interview--but not to give away any secrets.

Since the day President Clinton asked to lift the military ban on homosexuals, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and others, in and out of uniform, have vigorously opposed it. The gay and lesbian community and assorted libertarians and activists have aggressively favored it. Neither side has displayed enough firepower to claim unequivocal victory for its position.

And then there’s Shilts, at home in San Francisco, possessing information that some pundits think might tilt the scales.

The author, 41, began five years ago to research the history, behavior and treatment of homosexuals in the armed forces--and says he has come up with data never before distilled and made public. Because he is perhaps the country’s best expert on so troubling a subject, Shilts was besieged with interview requests before the manuscript was even finished three weeks ago.

What will happen to the military if the ban on homosexuals is lifted?

“Nothing--absolutely nothing will happen,” Shilts predicts. Military life will go on as usual, uninterrupted. He says that since Clinton’s proposal to lift the restrictions on military service for homosexuals, “there’s been this big threat that masses of (heterosexuals) will resign from the armed forces if gays are allowed in. But that’s all a bluff,” Shilts believes. “If you’re a colonel with 17 years of service, you’re not going to resign three years before you get your pension.”

The debate so far “has overlooked the fact that many field commanders simply do not enforce” anti-gay regulations. “I have story after story from those who admit they don’t want to” conduct the mandatory gay expulsions, says Shilts, who interviewed more than 1,000 people for the book.

“The military’s administrative regulation says that you cannot be in the service and be gay--or even have a propensity to be gay. What’s so hair-raising is that it’s a thought crime--just for allegedly thinking it you can be brought up on charges, and you have to prove yourself innocent.

“And what’s interesting is that the regulation is so capriciously enforced,” Shilts adds. “The commander of a ship may refuse to kick out gays; he’s replaced by a new commander, who decides to launch massive purges.”

Shilts says brutalization of gays and suspected gays is commonplace in some military sectors. “They conduct horrendous witch hunts and purges. But the Department of Defense makes it sound as if they simply courteously escort (gays) to the door, in order that they may seek employment elsewhere.”

What they really do, Shilts says, is hold “investigations” similar to those in Salem, Mass., in the 1600s.

“They put you in a tiny room, interrogate you for hours, and threaten you with dire consequences unless you confess and provide a list of names of five other gay people.

“They say they will throw you in prison for years or take away your children if you have any. The person is so frightened that he or she signs the paper, gives other names, and the same thing happens to those five people.”

He has documented “gobs of suicides,” he says, of young people too frightened to continue living after being accused and/or investigated.

What usually happens, Shilts says, is that “the accused becomes frightened, has nowhere to turn, and simply kills himself or herself. It happens literally all the time. Every purge has a suicide. I’m thinking now of a woman at Camp Lejeune (N.C.) who’d been named sportswoman of the year for the whole Marine Corps. She was put under investigation and she went into the garage and turned on the ignition.”

(The Pentagon’s spokesperson on homosexual policy was unavailable for comment to The Times.)

In the course of research, Shilts says, he has documented “lots of physical attacks” against gays and suspected gays--and has received “tons of letters” from parents and relatives who claim their sons or daughters died under mysterious circumstances.

And then there are those “amazing investigations,” Shilts says, like the one reported at Parris Island, S.C., in 1988. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Terry Lanford Knox was suspected of being the lover of Marine Sgt. Mary Kile because Knox was seen kissing Kile in front of a supermarket.

“Knox was pregnant at the time and estranged from her husband, who she said had beaten her. The Naval Investigative Services brought the husband in and locked him in a room with her, so he could threaten her. Then the NIS agents came in and threatened her. They said she’d go to jail if she didn’t confess to her own homosexuality, and especially if she did not admit to a relationship with Kile. According to Knox’s later testimony, the NIS agent asked, ‘Do you want your daughter growing up knowing her mother is a jailbird and went to jail for being a lesbian?’ ”

Shilts says that after 10 hours of continuous interrogation--”and that’s common in these cases”--Knox signed a statement of only a few lines, admitting she had embraced Kile in front of the supermarket. When she next saw the statement, Shilts says, “the NIS had filled in paragraph after paragraph of fabricated information, all of which appeared over her signature. That’s a very common story.”

Kile was “kicked out” of the service, Shilts says. Knox was not. “She waited until her term of service expired, and then left.”

“The stories are all alike,” Shilts says. “You’ve talked to one and you’ve talked to them all. It’s a script, and it works especially well with 19-year-old kids. That’s what’s so bad--they do it to young kids. And they’re still doing it--because it works. It hasn’t changed a bit in 40 years.”

As a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, Shilts was one of the first openly gay journalists in the country. Admittedly, he has something of a bias. But many believe he’s proved he can be objective. His 1987 book, “And the Band Played On” (soon to be a TV movie), documented the spread of AIDS and placed blame on both the straight and gay communities where he thought they deserved it. His research led Shilts to make a controversial plea for the closing of gay bathhouses and for a retreat from the sexual promiscuity that he said characterized a segment of the gay population--all of which earned him the epithet of a “gay Uncle Tom.”

And now, Shilts says, after a grueling bout with illness, he feels strong enough to take any flak that results from his findings on gays in the military. (He has known he was HIV- positive since 1987, he says, but didn’t make his condition public until mid-February.)

“I think Clinton will change the policy, and when it changes, I think it will end up being a big yawn. Nothing will happen,” Shilts says, “except that gay people will be able to take advantage of the equal opportunity mechanisms.”

The military “does a splendid job” handling people with HIV, Shilts says. “They assure confidentiality and non-discrimination. The regulations are enforced. If an officer doesn’t obey, he or she is transferred or demoted. But in the beginning it was horrible. They just wanted to kick everybody (with HIV) out. They were taking people who had weeks left to live, who couldn’t even sit up, and bringing them up on charges. But by 1987 they evolved into having one of the best policies in the country. And it worked. And I think this will work too--although it may be rocky at first.”

Because illness slowed him down while writing this last book, Shilts was unable to include an intended chapter on the Gulf War in time for his publisher’s deadline. Michael Denneny, Shilts’ editor at St. Martin’s Press in New York, says the Gulf War material will be included in the second printing and in the paperback.