Clinton Wants to Revise Military Gay Policy

President Clinton has concluded that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy covering service by gays in the U.S. military “does not work” and is “out of whack.”

As a result, Clinton said Saturday that the Pentagon is trying to find ways to better implement the policy, which emerged as a compromise early in his first term.

Clinton’s disclosure could revive the controversy over the issue--a firestorm that in the earliest stages of his presidency raised questions about his ability to serve as commander in chief and hampered his initiatives on other fronts.

His remarks also echoed those made last week by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. The president’s critical assessment of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which he said he did not favor in the first place, came during an interview with CBS Radio.

His comments were not quite as harsh as Mrs. Clinton’s. She called the policy a failure at an appearance before a gay rights organization in New York, where she is gearing up for a run for a Senate seat. And she said she would work to overturn the policy if elected--remarks that were interpreted as a major policy break with the president.

But on Saturday, he said there is no dissension on the issue within the Clinton household. “Well, first of all, I’m quite sympathetic to what she said.”

He said he embraced the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy only after Congress rebuffed his intentions to allow gays and lesbians to serve under the same code of conduct as all soldiers.

The Pentagon already has tinkered with the policy, issuing new guidelines in August that, among other minor changes, required all troops to receive training on tolerance. The changes came after officials reported 1,145 people were discharged from the armed forces for homosexuality in 1998, up from 997 in 1997.

In his radio interview, Clinton said that the July 5 murder of a soldier rumored to be gay--and last week’s sentencing of one of his killers--should serve as a “sobering impetus to a reexamination of how this policy is implemented and whether we can do a better job of fulfilling its original intent.”

Clinton also referred to the slain soldier, Army Pfc. Barry Winchell, 21, and his killer, Pvt. Calvin Glover, 18, during a speech Saturday in Orlando, Fla., to the Florida Democratic Convention.

“I was looking at these two kids [who were pictured in many newspapers last week], thinking: ‘You know, they’re young enough that they could be my children.’ And both these young men put on the uniform of our country, and I could have sent them some place to die. They both swore to go wherever I told them to go, and do whatever I told them to do. And I was aching for the young man who had died--and for the young man whose life is now destroyed, who wasn’t born hating that way; somebody had to teach him to do that.”

Clinton’s unexpected comments may also heighten the effect of the issue in the presidential campaign.

Among the Democratic contenders, Vice President Al Gore last summer called for a more “compassionate” handling of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” rules by the military, while his Democratic rival, former Sen. Bill Bradley, has said that the policy should be dropped and homosexuals allowed to serve openly in the armed forces.

Among GOP candidates, Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain of Arizona have expressed support for the current policy, while their more conservatives foes oppose allowing gays to serve.

Clinton, in the radio interview, said the policy as implemented is “way out of--it’s out of whack now.”