Study on gays in military could spark Senate showdown

WASHINGTON - When a majority of troops told the Pentagon this summer they didn't care if gays were allowed to serve openly in the military, it was in sharp contrast to the time when America's fighting forces voiced bitter opposition to accepting racial minorities and women in the services.

The survey, due out Tuesday, is expected to find pockets of resistance among combat troops to ending the ban on gays. But some 70 percent of respondents were expected to say that lifting the ban would have a positive or mixed effect, or none at all, according to officials familiar with the findings.

The study is expected to set the stage for a Senate showdown between advocates of repealing the 17-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" law and a small but powerful group of foes in the final days of the lame-duck Congress.

Repeal would mean that, for the first time in U.S. history, gays would be openly accepted by the military and could acknowledge their sexual orientation without fear of being kicked out.

U.S. troops haven't always been so accepting. Troop surveys in the 1940s on blacks and Jews, and in the 1970s and 1980s on women, exposed deep rifts within a military led by white males but becoming more reliant on minorities to help do its job.

In an Army study from July 1947, four of five enlisted men said they would oppose blacks serving in their units even if whites and blacks didn't share housing or food facilities. The same study revealed a deep resentment toward Jews.

By the 1980s, the military faced whether to allow women to serve on Navy ships and elsewhere on the battlefield. Troops were generally more open to serving with women than to serving with African-Americans 40 years prior. Still, many expressed serious concerns that allowing females as crew members would cause problems.