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GAYS THE MILARY
While a cisn to tegrate homosexuals to the force is not directly parable to the tegratn of blacks to the ary, the experience of racial tegratn provis sights to the ary's abily to adapt to change. Thirty-eight percent favored service as long as sexual orientatn was kept private, and 40 percent were favor of homosexuals servg openly (but followg the same l of nduct as all ary personnel).
Reasons they gave for their opposn were their fear of sharg quarters wh homosexuals, their nvictn that homosexualy was immoral and ntrary to their relig beliefs, and their ncern that homosexuals uld ntribute to the spread of AIDS. Although most ary personnel had rporated the prence of mori and women to their image of the ary, they had much more difficulty seeg how homosexuals uld f to the force whout changg beyond regnn and promisg the ary's abily to rry out an effective natnal fense. The RAND study suggts that although the prence of a known homosexual may affect social hn, is unlikely to unrme task hn, provid that the dividual monstrat petence and a mment to the un's missn.
While heterosexuals would be asked to tolerate the prence of known homosexuals, all personnel, cludg acknowledged homosexuals, mt unrstand that the ary environment is no place to advertise one's sexual orientatn. In 2005, GAO reported on the number of separated servicemembers unr DOD's homosexual nduct policy who held cril skills and the sts associated wh admisterg the policy om fisl years 1994 through 2003. Instead of specifilly intifyg homosexual nduct as prohibed or unsirable, the ary terpreted polici requirg good character and proper nduct as grounds to exclu LGB service members.