Report finds lifting gay ban could ease military recruiting crisis By Dawn Wolfe Gutterman pridesource.com August 11, 2005 WASHINGTON, D.C. - With enlistment lagging way behind the estimated need, the U.S. military is easing standards, considering raising the enlistment age and even resorting to tactics that have brought recruiters under fire for abuse. But one tactic alone may result in 41,000 new recruits, and it's one the military isn't allowed to consider - letting openly gay men serve. That's the conclusion of Gary J. Gates, a Senior Research Fellow at the Williams Project, UCLA School of Law, in a report issued July 25 by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. Using a combination of U.S. Census data from 2000 and commonly accepted figures for the percentage of gay men in the overall population, Gates estimates that by eliminating "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the U.S. military could stand to gain approximately 41,000 more recruits in the active and reserve forces combined. "If 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' were lifted, it could be there would be no barriers to gay men serving and they would be just as likely as other men to serve," Gates said. "What that means in a statistical sense is that the proportion of gay men serving in the military should be similar to their proportion in the adult population." Gates estimates "that about 1.4 percent of men in the military are gay," because given the restrictions of the current law, "gay men are less likely to serve than other men." Gates said that approximately 16,000 gay men are currently in uniform. Gates said that it is commonly estimated that between two and seven percent of the adult male population in the U.S. is gay, so "for this report I used the assumption that four percent are gay." If "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" were to be repealed, Gates said, "What that means is, instead of 16,000 gay men, it would mean there would be ... an additional 34,000. If you include the National Guard and Reserves, you end up with the 41,000 total." Gates said it isn't possible to measure the increase in the number of lesbians who would serve if the restrictive law were repealed. "The thing with lesbians is that even with 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' they're four times more likely to serve than straight women," he said. "I have no way of estimating how many more [lesbians would serve] because their service rates are already so much higher than other women." There is a possible solution on the horizon. The Military Readiness Enhancement Act, a bill to repeal DADT and allow gays to serve openly, is currently pending in Congress. The bill currently has 93 bi-partisan supporters and according to SLDN has been endorsed by eight retired military officers. The bill would not affect the ability of transgender citizens to serve. While DADT does not address transgendered individuals, according to the military's medical regulations, trans men and women are unfit to serve. SLDN is also involved in the struggle to end the military's medical discrimination against transgendered individuals. In the meantime, reports of the military's desperation to meet recruiting goals are mounting. According to a July 24 New York Times report cited by SLDN, Lt. Gen. Franklin L. Hagenbeck, the Army's top personnel officer, has predicted in testimony before Congress that the Army would miss its recruiting goal this year - the first time the military has missed its enlistment quota since 1999. And, according to a June 4 report in the British paper The Guardian which cited an internal military memo sent to senior commanders, "The U.S. military has stopped battalion commanders from dismissing new recruits for drug abuse, alcohol, poor fitness and pregnancy." The Army recruited only 73 percent of its target in February, 68 percent in March and 57 percent in April, according to The Guardian. In addition, according to the report, recruiters have come under fire for allegedly giving advice for cheating on the military's entrance drug test and one recruiter even reportedly threatened a twenty-year-old prospect with arrest unless he came into the office for an interview. According to a June 3 United Press International report, "At least 90 investigations are pending about recruiters who have allegedly used unethical and sometimes threatening measures to fulfill quotas of at least two new recruits each month."