Iowa Guard will still oust married gays

By WILLIAM PETROSKI

Gay and lesbian military service members who are legally married in Iowa can still be involuntarily discharged from the Iowa National Guard and other military branches under a federal law that prevents homosexuals from openly serving in the armed forces, military officials say.

The federal law, approved by Congress in 1993, takes precedence over the Iowa Supreme Court ruling in April that legalized same-sex marriage, according to legal experts. The ruling struck down Iowa’s Defense of Marriage Act, which had limited marriage to a man and a woman.

     The Iowa National Guard is prevented from implementing the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling for its personnel because it is a federally recognized military organization, said Lt. Col. Gregory Hapgood Jr., the Iowa National Guard’s public affairs officer.

"We are a microcosm of society," Hapgood said. "We have gay people in the Iowa National Guard. But under that policy, that is not the test. It is about conduct, not about whether you are gay."

The federal law is often described as "don’t ask, don’t tell" because it permits gays and lesbians to serve in the military if they are not open about their sexual orientation.

Officials representing One Iowa, a Des Moines-based gay rights group, said they had been unaware of the Iowa National Guard’s legal stance on same-sex marriage.

"We believe that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military and encourage federal legislation to repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ Iowans serving honorably in the military should not have to choose between the protections of marriage and their dedication to serving our country," said Carolyn Jenison, One Iowa’s executive director.

None of the 9,400 soldiers and airmen now serving in the Iowa National Guard is known to have obtained a license for a same-sex marriage since the Iowa court ruling was issued, Hapgood said.

He said he wasn’t aware of any gays or lesbians being discharged from the Iowa National Guard since the ban on homosexuals openly serving in the military was approved by Congress. This includes thousands of Iowa National Guard members deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries since 2001, he said.

The federal law allows the military to discharge members who engage in or attempt to engage in homosexual acts, and those who state they are homosexual or bisexual. The law says that military life is fundamentally different from civilian life. It also says the prohibition against homosexual conduct is a long-standing element of military law that continues to be necessary in the unique circumstances of military service.

The ban on same-sex marriage by National Guard members and other military service personnel also applies in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont, the three other states with legalized same-sex marriage, said Emily Hecht, a lawyer for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a Washington, D.C., advocacy group dedicated to repealing the federal law. Same-sex marriage will be legal in Vermont as of Sept. 1.

President Barack Obama said during his campaign for the White House that he favored repealing the ban on homosexuals openly serving in the military. But since Obama assumed office in January, the federal prohibition has remained in place.

White House spokesman Shin Inouye said last week that Obama supports changing the federal law "in a sensible way that strengthens our armed forces and our national security." He did not provide a timetable for making changes.

Impatient gay activists have been urging Obama to end his silence on the issue.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, "believes that any kind of discrimination is wrong" and favors repealing the military’s homosexual-conduct policy, said Kate Cyrul, Harkin’s spokeswoman.

But U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, "doesn’t want the policy revisited," said Beth Pellett Levine, a Grassley aide.

The Rev. Skip Hansen of Eldora, a former Army Reserve drill sergeant and a leader of the Iowa Baptist Conference, said allowing openly gay soldiers to serve in the military is not only immoral but impractical in a highly disciplined military culture focused on life-and- death matters. To permit homosexuals to have lovers within a military unit would create dangerous tensions among people who carry weapons, he said.

Former U.S. Attorney Charles Larson of Cedar Rapids, a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel, predicted the Iowa Supreme Court’s ruling that legalized gay marriage would generate more debate on the military’s homosexual-conduct policy.

"From my observation of the troops, it seems to be working effectively. We are able to recruit and field very strong forces," Larson said. "Obviously, there will be strong feelings on both sides of this issue. It is just undeniable. But the first guiding principle is that federal law is considered the supreme law of the land, and we will have to go forward with that."

Since the federal law’s implementation, more than 12,500 men and women have been discharged on the ground of violating its provisions, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

But commanding officers have discretion about whether to initiate discharge proceedings, Hecht said. This has resulted in some openly gay men and women remaining on military duty, she added.