The military’s ban on openly gay service members received a significant challenge yesterday in California.
The injunction of the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy by U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips will discontinue the enforcement of the policy and subsequently cease all pending discharge cases stemming from the ban. The U.S. Department of Justice, however, still has 60 days to appeal the decision to issue the injunction.
The policy recently sparked debate at Harvard University when the school’s president spoke out against the U.S. Senate’s decision to not repeal the ban. President Drew Faust said the university will not host a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program until the ban is repealed.
Despite Harvard’s opposition to the program, Duke administrators say its engagement with the ROTC does not reflect its position on the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Duke offers ROTC programs under the Air Force, Army and Navy, all of which currently adhere to the policy.
Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs and government relations, said that at Duke, embracing the military and supporting gay rights are not mutually exclusive.
Schoenfeld noted that although Duke has a strong military presence on campus, there are also University officials who still side strongly against the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
For example, Bruce Kuniholm, dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy and a former U.S. Marine, was one of nine academics to sign a letter sent to the House of Representatives and the Senate calling for the law’s repeal in May, Schoenfeld said.
“I don’t see [Faust’s statement] becoming an issue at Duke,” Schoenfeld said. “Regardless of the debate over the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ [policy], there is an equally strong respect for the role of ROTC on campus and its historic position at Duke.”
Lieutenant Valerie VanHo, a visiting professor for the Naval ROTC program and Grad ’10, said that all ROTC programs must “fall under the guidelines of the rest of the military,” but declined to comment further on the policy.
Despite the ROTC’s compliance with the ban of openly gay members, junior Ollie Wilson, president of Blue Devils United, said he and other members of the gay community do not feel any animosity toward students active in the program.
On Duke’s campus, those in support of the law’s repeal have found ways to demonstrate their objections without ostracizing ROTC students, Wilson said. On the day of the Senate’s vote to repeal the law, students demonstrated in front of the bus stop by asking peers to call their senators, he said.
“I’m hoping for a future at Duke where it’s OK for students to be in the ROTC program and to be out,” he said. “It’s important to separate the ROTC program and the University from the students within it.... I think when looking to repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ it’s more effective to go after the reason the policy exists in the first place; mainly the Pentagon, Senate, House and Congress.”
Wilson added that although it is undesirable that gay members of ROTC must hide their sexual preferences, banning the program would do more harm than good to the school’s environment.
“The ROTC Program gives so much back to the University,” he said. “In an ideal world the University would be able to force the ROTC program not to uphold ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ but unfortunately it can’t.”
Sophomore Evan Halton, an Army ROTC service member, said that apart from the differences that stem from the ban, ROTC students and members of the gay community were more alike than students often realize. When an ROTC member admits to being openly gay the issue is handled “very sensitively” and investigated by “highly trained personnel.” Overall, the Duke community is one of the most supportive top-tier universities in the country, he added.
“Students chose to join [each group] because they both believe in equality and freedom,” Halton said. “At the most essential level, the two are probably more similar to each other than they are to the rest of the student body.”
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