The Carolinas’ Most Comprehensive Gay & Lesbian Newspaper
, Stpkely Bailey, PFLAG.
chapter founder, is
among the honorees at
the group’s ; ■
Fifteenth Anniversary
Celebration.
See story on page 13.
Published Every Two Weeks On Recycled Paper • Volume 15, Number 23 • March 31, 2001 • FREE
Charleston Police remove sexual
history question from hiring exam
Dr. Joycelyn
Elders to speak at
Charlotte area
RAIN AIDS walk
by Elaine Rhodes
Special to Q-Notes
CHARLOTTE — Dr. Joycelyn Elders,
former US Surgeon General, will speak at the
fifth annual AIDS WALK for the Regional
AIDS Interfaith Network (RAIN). The event is
scheduled for Saturday, May 5 at the Great Aunt
Stella Center, 926 Elizabeth Avenue, Charlotte.
The WALK begins at 2:00 pm, RAIN or
SHINE.
Dr. Elders is a deeply committed official in
the fight against AIDS. During her tenure as
US Surgeon General, she worked to bring more
resources to persons affected by the disease.
Upon her nomination. Dr. Elders stated, “I want
to change the way we think about health by put
ting prevention first...I want to change concern
about social problems that affect health into
commitment.”
Walkers register by bringing donations from
12:30-1:45 pm. RAIN invites participants to
pack a picnic lunch and eat on the front lawn
prior to the event. Judging at 1:00 for “Best Pic
nic Spread.”
/ >
Dr. Joycelyn Elders
Chief of Police
Reuben Greenberg
by Veronica Schwartz
Special to Q-Notes
CHARLESTON, SC — The Charleston Po
lice Department has revised its hiring examina
tion to no longer ask job applicants about their
sexual practices. Charleston Mayor Joseph P.
Riley announced the revision on March 14.
The Alliance for Full Acceptance (AFFA), a
lowcountry GLBT rights group, recently learned
that, as part of the police hiring process, job
applicants had to pass a polygraph examination
which included a question about whether they
had participated in homosexual activity. The
group believes the question was intended to pre
vent gay and lesbian applicants from being
hired. AFFA President Linda Ketner approached
Mayor Riley to express concern about the ques
tion.
Riley said that after hearing Ketner’s concerns,
he discussed the issue with Chief of Police Reuben
Greenberg, and the two agreed the question
should be eliminated. Riley said he believes that
the question is an invasion of privacy, adding, “I
don’t think a person’s sexual orientation is relevant
to their being a police officer.”
The mayor also said the question has been a
part of the department’s hiring process for as long
as anyone could remember.
According to AFFA, the mayor’s office has
agreed to work with the group to ensure that the
city’s non-discrimination policy protects gay and
lesbian employees in all departments. V
Watchdog group reports military harrassment continues
Prizes are available for top individual
fundraiser and top team fundraiser, most cre
ative team banner and most original individual
umbrella. Walkers who raise a minimum of $50
receive an AIDS walk T-shirt.
Executive Director Rev. Deborah C. Warren
says, “Last year, support from corporations and
over 300 walkers raised nearly $50,000. This is
our signature fundraiser, and we expect another
great success this year.” Since 1992, RAIN has
Provided over 71,000 hours of volunteer service,
trained over 2100 individuals, provided
CareTeams for almost 400 persons living with
HIV/AIDS and provided prevention education
to over 10,000 people in 11 counties of North
and South Carolina
Donations support CareTeams as well as
rain’s HIV/aids prevention education pro
gram. RAIN trains and supervises almost 80
Careteams who provide practical, emotional,
and spiritual support to over 90 individuals liv
ing with HIV/AIDS in Mecklenburg and 10
surrounding counties. Currently over 60 area
congregations from 20 denominations are in
volved with RAIN.
For information on corporate sponsorships
or to request a walker packet, call 372-7246 or
e-mail F|aineatRAIN@aol.coni. T
Pentagon promises
directive
by Steve Ralls
Special to Q-Notes
WASHINGTON, DC — Finding that “re
ports of death threats, assaults and verbal gay
bashing continue almost unabated,” GLBT mili
tary watchdog Servicemembers Legal Defense
Network (SLDN) released Conduct Unbecoming,
the group’s Seventh Annual Report on “Don’t
Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue, Don’t Harass,” on
March 15.
According to the report, total documented
incidents of asking, pursuit and harassment de
clined slightly for the first time in the policy’s
seven years, though total reported violations re
main higher than in the first five years SLDN
tracked such incidents. Citing a total of 871 in
cidents of anti-gay harassment, SLDN again
called on the Pentagon to issue its promised or
ders to the services to revise service regulations
and training to curb harassment.
The group urged Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld to implement
a thirteen-point Anti-
Harassment Action Plan
published by a Depart
ment of Defense Work
ing Group in July 2000.
The Pentagon adopted
the plan’s recommenda
tions, but has failed to
implement them. The plan included, among other
things, increased rank-appropriate training for all
military personnel.
The Pentagon developed the Anti-Harass
ment Action Plan in the wake of its own Inspec
tor General’s survey of 75,000 service members.
That survey found that 80 percent of men and
women in uniform had heard derogatory, anti
gay remarks during the past year. Of those, 37
percent said they had witnessed or experienced
targeted incidents of anti-gay harassment. The
Pentagon conducted the Inspector General sur
vey to gauge the level of anti-gay harassment
servicewide in the wake of the murder of Pfc.
Barry Winchell at Fort Campbell, and SLDN’s
annual reports citing escalating incidents of anti
gay harassment.
“The Pentagon’s failure to move aggressively to
implement the Action Plan is inexcusable,” said
SLDN Executive DireaorC. Dixon Osburn. “The
Pentagon itself has said anti-gay harassment under
mines good order, discipline and morale. By toler
ating continued hanassment, ridicule and assault of
men and women in uniform, the Pentagon is work
ing against what it knows to be in the best interest
of our armed forces.”
Pentagon spokesperson Adm. Craig Quigley,
responding to the report, stated that Defense
Secretary Rumsfeld is committed to issuing a
Pentagon Directive and Instruction on anti-gay
harassment, according to a March 15 story in
The New York Times. Admiral Quigley’s statement
marks the first public comment relating to gays
in the military by anyone in the Bush Adminis
tration.
“We welcome Adm. Quigley’s comments that
the Pentagon remains committed to curbing anti
gay harassment,” said Osburn. “The questions
remain, ‘When will the Pentagon release the new
orders?’ and ‘What are the specifics of those or
ders?”’
Osburn added, “The question is whether the
Bush Administration will do what the Clinton
Administration failed to do and enforce ‘Don’t
Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue, Don’t Harass’ with
fairness and compassion. Today is the first day
“By tolerating continued harassment ridicule and
assault of men and women in uniform, the Pentagon
is working against what it knows to be in the best
interest of our armed forces."
for the new Administration to demonstrate its
resolve.”
Among the report’s findings:
• Pentagon fails to protect those reporting
harassment.
The Pentagon’s anti-harassment training fails
to make clear that service members should be
able to report harassment to Inspectors General,
law-enforcement officers, equal opportunity rep
resentatives, healthcare providers and others
without fear of reprisal;
• Doctors and psychologists told to out gay
service members.
Psychologists report they continue to be in
structed to turn in gay, lesbian and bisexual mili
tary members who seek their help, despite prom
ises by the Pentagon since 1998 to correct that
practice. Officials have knowingly permitted er
roneous instructions to circulate in the field that
tell psychologists and doctors to out gay service
members, including in new Army training on
the policy.
• Pentagon and services hold few leaders ac
countable.
In the first six years, military leaders did not
officially hold anyone accountable for asking, pur
suing or harassing. This past year, SLDN docu
mented increased accountability. Specifiailly, action
was taken against three commanders for improper
conduct. Gen. Clark at Fort Campbell, Kentucky,
was denied his third star for his conduct in address
ing the anti-gay harassment .scandal surrounding
the murder of Pfc. Winchell; Gipt. Brady at Fort
Campbell was disciplined by the new command
ing general at the base for calling a gay .soldier a
“pole smoker” in front of his subordinate leaders;
and the Marine Corps reprimanded Lt. Col. Melton
at Twenty-Nine Palms, CA, for disseminating an
anti-gay email to his subordinates.
• Women disproportionately affected.
Women continue to he accused of being les
bians for retaliatory reasons, regardle.ss of their
actual sexual orientation. Women represent 24
percent of SLDN’s cases, though they comprise
only 14 percent of the active forces. Women have
historically been dis-
. charged at twice the
rate of their numbers in
the military.
•Services imple
ment inconsistent
training.
The report noted
that the Army is almost
exclusively responsible
for the small decline in anti-gay harassment. The
Army, better than any other service, trained sol
diers on preventing harassment and on uphold
ing the policy’s investigative limits. Navy and
Marine Corps training was not as effective in
reducing some violations — anti-gay harassment
actually climbed in the Navy, which leads all ser
vices in reported incidents of anti-gay harass
ment. Air Force training, the report found, is
limited to online, self-directed training which
service members report has not been successful.
SLDN contends that the Pentagon’s anti-gay
policy undermines national security. The report
argues that “forcing gay, lesbian and bisexual ser
vice members to hide, lie, evade and deceive
breaks the bonds of trust among service mem
bers essential to unit cohesion, and forcing com
manders to discharge valued members of their
team impairs mission readiness.”
Conduct Unbecoming: The Seventh Annual Re
port on “Don't Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue, Don’t
Harass’’\s, available online at www.sldn.org. ▼
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