http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/30/students-protest-dont-ask-dont-tell-policy/?hp
By Jennifer 8. Lee
May 30, 2008
Two students were arrested for trespassing at the Armed Forces
recruiting station in Times Square today as part of a series of
sit-in protests in the Northeast against the Pentagon's "Don't Ask,
Don't Tell" policy. About 20 people took part in the protest,
organized by the Harvard Right to Serve Campaign; most left the scene
when the police arrived.
The two students arrested were Jacob Reitan, a Harvard Divinity
School student, and another man, Shelby Condray, a Boston University
graduate student. Fellow protesters and passers-by cheered in their
support. They were each given a criminal summons to appear before a
judge at a later date, then released. The police said the two spent
five minutes in the precinct office.
The students staged their protest (video can be seen at YouTube)
after Mr. Reitan walked into the recruitment center, surrounded by
other protesters holding signs, and tried to enlist while declaring
that he was gay. He was arrested for not leaving after the military
recruiters told him to, he said.
Later, in a phone interview, when a reporter asked why he did not
simply enlist without mentioning that he is gay as many gays and
lesbians serving in the military have done Mr. Reitan replied: "I
know what the road ahead is for someone who doesn't tell. It's lies
and deceit and stress."
The protesters said they only asked students who sincerely wanted to
serve to attempt to enlist. "I can tell you with all honesty: If they
took me, I would go," said Mr. Reitan, 26, whose grandfathers both
served in World War II. "I want to serve because I believe in my
country. I want to serve because I believe in public service. I
believe it's a tradition within my family that I honor and greatly
respect. I also want to serve because I think it's every American's right."
But part of the motivation of wanting to serve was to protest, he
explained. "Did John Lewis really want to have a cup of coffee or a
hamburger at the white-only lunch counter or did he really want to
make a statement?" said Mr. Reitan, referring to the Freedom Rides of
the 1960s. "Part of the human experience is that when humans are told
they can't do something because of who they are, they invariably seek
that right a woman who can't vote, an African-American who can't
sit at the lunch counter, a gay person who can't serve."
He added: "I feel that in seeking my right to serve. I am trying to
seek to win justice for an oppressed group."
The group is trying to pressure United States senators who serve on
the Armed Services Committee to introduce a version of the Military
Readiness Enhancement Act, which was introduced in the House in 2007
and has more than 140 co-sponsors. The act would forbid
discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
The protest in New York was intended to pressure Senator Hillary
Rodham Clinton. The campaign has previously aimed protests at Senator
Susan Collins, a Republican, in Portland, Me. (where four people,
including Mr. Reitan, were arrested); at Senator Joseph I. Lieberman,
an independent, in Hartford (where four people were arrested); and at
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Democrat, in Boston (where two people
were arrested). Mr. Kennedy has been generally sympathetic to the
House legislation.
The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was introduced as a compromise
measure in 1993 and approved by President Bill Clinton. Since then,
an average of about one or two people a day have been discharged for
violating the policy, according to a 2004 study by the Servicemembers
Legal Defense Network, a group that advocates on behalf of gay
military personnel affected by the policy. The group estimates that
currently around 12,000 people have been expelled.
The policy has been the subject of much litigation and retired
generals, who have acknowledged that they are gay, have criticized
the policy as ineffective and undermining the military's core values.
In an interview with the Pentagon Channel last year, Defense
Secretary Robert M. Gates was asked about his views and responded,
"Personal opinion really doesn't have a place here. What's important
is that we have a law, a statute that governs, 'Don't ask, don't
tell,' that's the policy of this department, and it's my
responsibility to execute that policy as effectively as we can. As
long as the law is what it is, that's what we'll do." (Read the text
of the law in pdf format.)
A Pentagon spokesman, Les Melnyk, further elaborated the Pentagon's
position by saying, "We don't discharge because of sexual
orientation, but because of sexual conduct." (This is similar to a
distinction that the Roman Catholic Church made until it issued a
decree in 2005 that banned gay priests.)
But that is a vague (and still discriminatory) line, the protesters
said. "It's not a very well-reasoned argument," said Andrew Fine, a
junior at Harvard College and a spokesman for the Harvard
Right-to-Serve campaign. The military regulations [pdf] state "an
applicant shall be rejected for entry if he or she makes a statement
that he or she is a homosexual or bisexual."
"If a public declaration of your sexuality is conduct, then the
distinction between conduct and sexual orientation is meaningless,"
Mr. Fine said.
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