Should sexual orientation be a determining factor in who may serve in the U.S. Armed Forces? Based on these controversial research findings, the answer is no.

OVERVIEW
On January 29, 1993, President Clinton signed a Memorandum directing the Secretary of Defense to “submit . . . prior to July 15, 1993, a draft of an Executive Order ending discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in determining who may serve in the Armed Forces.”

The Presidential Memorandum also directed that any recommendation by the Secretary should be one that could be “carried out in a manner that is practical and realistic, and consistent with the high standards of combat effectiveness and unit cohesion our Armed Forces must maintain.”

On April 1, 1993, the Secretary of Defense asked RAND to provide information and analysis that would be useful in helping formulate the required draft Executive Order. This Executive Summary briefly describes the approach and major conclusions of the study. It then summarizes the major findings that support that conclusion.

The Policy Option

In light of this research, the team examined a range of potential policy options. Most of the options were judged to be either inconsistent with the Presidentʼs directive, internally contradictory, or both. Only one policy option was found to be consistent with the findings of this research, with the criteria of the Presidential memorandum, and to be logically and internally consistent.

That policy would consider sexual orientation, by itself, as not germane to determining who may serve in the military. The policy would establish clear standards of conduct for all military personnel, to be equally and strictly enforced, in order to maintain the military discipline necessary for effective operations.

The option requires no major changes in other military personnel policies and no change in current law. The “not germane” option could be implemented without any changes to the administrative guidelines for prosecutions under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).

However, several considerations lead to the conclusion that the policy would be more legally defensible and less costly and cumbersome to implement if the guidelines were revised to exclude private sexual behavior between consenting adults.

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Sexual orientation and U.S. military personnel policy: options and assessment
By National Defense Research Institute (U.S.), United States. Dept. of Defense. Office of the Secretary of Defense, Rand Corporation
Published by Rand Corporation, 1993
ISBN 0833014412, 9780833014412

PREFACE
This report documents the results of a study that was undertaken by RAND’s National Defense Research Institute (NDRI) at the request of Secretary of Defense Les Aspin.

A Presidential Memorandum directed Secretary Aspin to submit the draft of an Executive Order “ending discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in the Armed Forces” by July 15, 1993 (Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense, Ending Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation in the Armed Forces, January 29, 1993). The Secretary of Defense asked RAND to provide information and analysis that would be useful in helping formulate the Executive Order.

The research documented in this report was completed and provided to the Secretary of Defense prior to the decisions announced by the Secretary and the President on July 19, 1993.

This report consists of an Executive Summary and an Overview that present the study’s findings. It also contains chapters on specific subjects and shorter appendices that expand on points covered in the Overview. The Overview synthesizes the research and functions as a “road map” pointing the reader toward these additional discussions.

This study was conducted within NDRI’s Defense Manpower Research Center by a multidisciplinary team of researchers drawn from a number of research departments at RAND. NDRI is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff.

The views expressed in this report are those of the research team and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the sponsors.

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