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Research
:: The Effects of Including Gay and Lesbian Soldiers in the British Armed
Forces:
Appraising the Evidence
II. INTRODUCTIONUntil January 12, 2000, the British Services maintained an official policy of discharging all known gay and lesbian soldiers. [1 - Original research and analysis conducted for this report were furnished by ELM Research Associates, an independent, non-partisan research consultancy]. It was felt that close living quarters and the stresses of military life precluded the inclusion of homosexual servicemembers; military commanders argued that "homosexual behavior can cause offence, polarize relationships, induce ill-discipline, and as a consequence damage morale and unit effectiveness" (Ministry of Defense, 1994, p.1). At the beginning of this year, the British Armed Forces ended its policy of excluding gay and lesbian soldiers. The change came as a result of a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights and after years of resistance by the Armed Forces to lifting the ban. Once the decision was announced, however, the Services quickly established a policy of nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Instead, the social conduct rules were rewritten to prohibit sexual behavior, by both heterosexuals and homosexuals, that adversely affects operational effectiveness. Such misconduct includes, but is not limited to, sexual harassment, sexual contact with subordinates, and overt displays of affection between servicemembers. The new inclusive policy remains politically charged; even with the European Court decision, leaders of the Conservative Party have declared that they would reevaluate the policy if returned to majority status. This report draws together military documents; press coverage; prior research on homosexual military issues; and interviews with military officials, academics, think tank and non-profit organization representatives, and sexual minorities presently serving in the military to provide an appraisal of the initial effects of the policy change. All available information indicates that the removal of the ban has been a success in its first nine months. The military undertook its own internal review of the new policy six months after enactment and declared that the transition has been characterized by a "marked lack of reaction" (Ministry of Defense, 2000c, p. 2). The policy change has had no perceptible impact on unit cohesion, morale, or operational effectiveness. There is no indication of any discernible effects on recruiting, training completion or resignation rates. There have been no major problems of gay-bashing, harassment or sexual misconduct associated with the new policy. While the long-term consequences of the policy change remain to be seen, fears of upheaval within the military have largely been replaced with an awareness that the transition has proceeded smoothly. III. METHODOLOGYInformation collected for this report was systematically gathered from publicly available primary and secondary sources relevant to an understanding of military outcomes associated with homosexual service in the British Armed Forces. Sources and methods included: identification, retrieval, and analysis of prior research bearing on homosexual service in the British military conducted by governmental, academic, and policy-focused organizations; content analysis of Lexis/Nexis search retrievals for all news articles and wire service dispatches relating to homosexual service in the British Armed Forces (n=101); interviews with present and former military officials (n=10); interviews with journalists and major academic, non-governmental, and policy observers familiar with gay-military issues in Britain or British military concerns generally (n=14); and interviews with present and former sexual minority participants in the British Services who were located through snowball sampling (n=5) [2 - This includes one former servicemember, Joan Heggie, who is also listed as an academic expert. Several other observers interviewed for this report are also former service personnel, but only Ms. Heggie was interviewed about her prior military experiences in addition to her present expertise].This report relies on a multi-method approach to compare and synthesize evidence provided by a variety of sources in order to draw conclusions. Whenever possible, independent observations from multiple sources are compared to draw out common findings that are consistent among observers in different sectors (e.g., military, academic, non-governmental). During the interview process, we also sought to ensure the broadest universe of sources by repeatedly asking expert observers from different sectors for recommendations of additional sources of information. This research is reproduced with the kind permission of Professor Aaron Belkin and can be found in its original context on the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military website. << research index :: political and cultural context >> page: research :: 200011-CSSMM-0Summary.htm |
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