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Eric Johnston, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network
SUMMARY: The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday in favor of a bill supporting military recruitment on college campuses, prompting gay rights groups to vow to fight it in the Senate.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday in favor of a bill supporting military recruitment on college campuses, prompting gay rights groups to vow to fight the bill when it moves to the Senate.
The House approved The ROTC and Military Recruiter Equal Access to Campus Act of 2004 (H.R. 3966) by a 343-81 vote. The bill, introduced by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., would strengthen the ability of military recruiters to violate university nondiscrimination policies and would provide stiffer penalties for institutions that deny recruiters access to campuses.
"Unfortunately, the Department of Defense (news - web sites) has documented isolated incidents where certain colleges and universities have blocked military recruiters from campus," said Marshall Macomber, a spokesman for Rogers. "This simply must not continue," he told the Syracuse University Daily Orange newspaper.
Many colleges that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation say the military's "don't ask, don't tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual service members clearly violates the colleges' codes.
"Schools should never be forced to allow discrimination," said Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender political organization.
Jacques went on to say the law was also unnecessary, because an existing law known as the Solomon Amendment already requires universities to give the military the ability to recruit and interview students without signing a sexual orientation-inclusive nondiscrimination policy. Colleges that deny the military access risk losing all federal funding for their schools.
Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, sharply criticized the bill during Tuesday's debate on the House floor.
"This bill is designed to force universities to violate their own policies against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and to undermine pending lawsuits that challenge the so-called Solomon Amendment," said Meehan.
The Solomon Amendment was already facing a challenge in federal court. In January, a coalition of law schools, professors and legal organizations asked the 3rd Circuit Court of
Appeals to overturn the Solomon Amendment, saying the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy is incompatible with university non-discrimination policies.
The Student/Faculty Alliance for Military Equality at Yale University is one of the plaintiffs in that case. Fadi Hanna, a spokesman for the group, told the Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network the House's latest action is "a bad sign because strengthening the [Solomon] amendment makes the point that [members of Congress] think discrimination is OK."
It is unclear when the bill might surface in the Senate, but HRC spokesman Mark Shields told the Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network that his group would be ready.
"We're going to go to the Senate now and work with our allies there in the hopes of defeating it," he said.
"Always forgive your enemies...nothing annoys them quite so much." Oscar Wilde
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