December 23, 1999
Web posted at: 7:53 p.m. EST (0053 GMT)

From Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In an effort to shore up a policy that allows homosexuals to serve in the U.S. military, the Pentagon announced it's adding "don't harass" to its "don't ask, don't tell" guidelines.

Defense Secretary William Cohen issued stronger guidance to military commanders, reminding them that harassment of gays is wrong, and that they have an obligation to take action against harassers, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon told reporters Thursday.

Bacon said, "Secretary Cohen believes that the description of the law passed by Congress in 1993 should be expanded from 'don't ask, don't tell' to 'don't ask, don't tell, don't harass.' And the actions that the department is taking are designed to stress the third part, 'don't harass.'"

Bacon said Cohen is responding to complaints by gay rights advocates that military personnel who complain they are victims of harassment are then subject to investigation and dismissal for violating the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Bacon said such a response is a misapplication of the policy.

"You cannot take a complaint from a soldier about harassment to be evidence of homosexuality," he said. "In fact, what the commander should do is investigate the harasser, the person who is harassing the soldier or making the complaint."

Cohen has asked all the services to incorporate into their training "stronger language against harassment" to make it clear that harassment on the basis of sexual orientation is wrong.

In a memo issued this week, Undersecretary of Defense Rudy de Leon and Douglas Dworkin, the acting general counsel, said:

"We also think it is important that the leadership of each of the services issue a strong statement to the field that harassment of service members for any reason, to include alleged or perceived homosexuality, will not be tolerated and that commanders are expected to take prompt, appropriate action against individuals involved in such behavior."

The services have until January 17 to report on how they will comply with Cohen's orders.

"It's an effort to emphasize that the policy should be described as 'don't ask, don't tell, don't harass,' and to put some backbone in the 'don't harass' part of the policy," Bacon said.

President Clinton said while he wanted gays to be able to serve openly in the military, the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy was "all we could get through Congress" in 1993.

"But the policy is better than the results," Clinton said Thursday on CNN's Larry King Live. "If the policy were faithfully applied, we would not have many of the problems that we've had these last few years."

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