Pentagon policy on gays stirs current, ex-military

A former National Guard sergeant who says he was propositioned early in his military career, says the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays in the military is essential to the operation of a fighting force.

"I don't think your average 18- to 25-year-old Joe is going to be OK with his peers and especially his commanders being out of the closet," said Eric Farina, 41, of East Northport.

But a former petty officer first class, drummed out of the Navy in 2007 after appearing in uniform at a Brooklyn gay pride rally, says the prohibition is a throwback to a less tolerant era and is tottering on its last legs.

"This is not 1950," said Rhonda Davis, 41, who moved to East Meadow in 2006 to work at a Navy recruitment center. "These prejudices are definitely dying, and it's time to pull the plug on them."

Farina and Davis are among current and former area residents whose lives intersect issues surrounding the Pentagon's 17-year-old policy of ousting military personnel who make their homosexuality known to others.

Davis, who joined the Navy in 1995, said others in her unit knew she was a lesbian but were mostly supportive. She was terminated in 2006 after telling a radio reporter at the gay pride rally that she wanted to marry her girlfriend.

Farina, a veteran of Afghanistan who left the Guard last month, said military personnel are generally more conservative than civilian populations. "A lot of soldiers consider this a deeply moral issue," he said.

A federal judge this week struck down the law, ordering the military to immediately suspend proceedings to dismiss gays, saying it violates troops' rights, doesn't help military readiness and hurts recruiting.

The Obama administration Thursday sought a stay of the ruling while it appeals the decision. It argues the Pentagon needs more time to chart an orderly transition toward a fighting force inclusive of openly homosexual individuals.

Yet President Obama vowed Thursday the ban would "end on my watch" and the Pentagon announced it would halt discharges under the law. Still, the administration's reticence in embracing the ruling has sown caution among gay military personnel.

A Marine reservist who until recently lived in Manhattan said he remains unwilling to divulge his homosexuality, fearing the judge's ruling may not stand.

"Personally, I'm glad we're moving in the right direction," said the Marine, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Joe. "But I'm not going into work this weekend and telling anybody that I am gay."

The law, passed by Congress in 1993, bars homosexuals as "persons whose presence in the armed forces would create an unacceptable risk to the armed forces' high standards of morale, good order and discipline." But it also barred military leaders from asking the sexual orientation of troops.

At least one member of the N.Y. National Guard's 69th Infantry Regiment has been forced to resign under "don't ask, don't tell." Lt. Daniel Choi, a West Point graduate who served in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, was dismissed in June after acknowledging last year on "The Rachel Maddow Show" that he was gay.

The 11-year veteran with the Army and the Guardserved out of the 69th's Manhattan headquarters.Guard spokesman Eric Durr said he knows of no other member of the N.Y. Guard who has been ousted because of the military's ban against homosexuals.