Pentagon's War on Gays Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the February 12, 1998 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- PENTAGON'S WAR ON GAYS Timothy McVeigh--the one the Navy's persecuting, not the Oklahoma City bomber--may win his case on a sort of a technicality. But the Pentagon's war against gays and lesbians in the military continues unabated. And the Clinton administration--responsible for the heightened witch hunt under Clinton's "don't ask don't tell" policy--remains criminally complicit in the armed forces' anti-gay terror campaign. The Navy is reportedly considering pulling back on discharging McVeigh. The brass may instead let him retire with full benefits. Why? Because their zealotry in ferreting out gays in the military went so far in the McVeigh case that the Navy's persecution is being widely condemned. Navy officials got America On Line to show them McVeigh's user profile, then charged him with the "crime" of homosexuality and moved to discharge him. Federal Judge Stanley Sporkin issued an injunction barring the Navy from discharging McVeigh. Sporkin's ruling said the Navy conducted a "search-and-outing" mission that violates "don't ask don't tell." But he also denounced the whole anti-gay policy itself, writing, "It is self-evident that a person's sexual orientation does not affect that individuals' performance in the work place." At this point the Navy just wants the public spotlight on the whole McVeigh case to go away. But they haven't said that they intend to stop their anti-gay witch hunts. The bigger fight won't die with this case. Anti-gay discrimination must stop. The fight to end it--even in an intrinsically reactionary institution like the military-- must go on. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://workers.org) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytsxp-02.05.98-00:01:19-9445