A conservative military watchdog says the American Medical Association (AMA) apparently doesn't know the facts about the 1993 law passed by Congress that prohibits homosexuals from serving in the military.
On Tuesday the homosexual activist group Servicemembers United hailed a recent decision by the AMA to pass a resolution calling for the repeal of the military's controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy. "This is yet another nail in the coffin of the flawed and outdated [policy], and it should send a strong message to those who continue to blindly claim that this policy works," states a Servicemembers United press release. The AMA -- which, according to Servicemembers United, worked "exclusively" with them on the resolution for nearly six months -- cited concerns that military medical providers might divulge personal information about patients to their commanders, thus exposing a service member's homosexuality and resulting in their discharge. But Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, says the AMA's confidentiality concerns have nothing to do with the actual 1993 law, which says homosexuals are not eligible to be in the armed forces even if they do not reveal it. "The first thing that they ought to have done is read the actual statute," she suggests, "and then maybe they would have figured out what their position should be. The second mistake they made was they consulted only with the advocates of gays in the military. It would have made a lot more sense to get balanced information." And according to Donnelly, there is another reason why the AMA's support for homosexuals in the military is misguided. "An organization that concerns itself with health matters should know that introducing into the military people who are at high risk of HIV infection makes no sense," she asserts. "For the AMA to ignore all that and listen only to an advocacy group that's looking at only part of the story really reflects very poorly on the credibility of that organization." Donnelly says ultimately it will be up to Congress, not the AMA, to decide whether to lift the ban on homosexual military service -- and she believes Congress will not do it.
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