Cheney meets Hackney over gay policy

President Sheldon Hackney told Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney Tuesday that he does not think the military's reasons for excluding homosexuals are valid, Hackney said yesterday. In a private meeting during Cheney's campus visit, Hackney carried through on promises made before University Council last month that he would try to use friendly persuasion to convince Pentagon officials to change their policy forbidding homosexuals in the military. The current Defense Department policy is a violation of the University's nondiscrimination policy and some campus leaders have called for the ouster of the two Reserve Officer Training Corps units on campus by 1993 unless the policy is changed. The exchange between the Defense Secretary and Hackney was similar to, but more detailed than, the question and answer session at Cheney's formal speech on Tuesday, Hackney said. While Hackney would not discuss Cheney's responses, the president said he emerged from the meeting "somewhat encouraged." But in his campus speech Tuesday, Cheney reiterated his support for the Pentagon policy as it currently stands. Hackney said he gave Cheney several arguments against the justifications usually used by the military for continuing the exclusion of gays and lesbians from military service. The president said he took issue with the justification that homosexuals are particularly vulnerable to blackmail and therefore pose a threat to military security. Cheney also addressed this issue in the campus question and answer session, saying that he does not consider homosexuals a security threat. Hackney said he also told Cheney that he does not agree with the argument that having gays and lesbians in the military adversely affects the morale of troops. "Times have changed," Hackney said yesterday. "People are not as concerned about other people's lifestyles." One possible compromise that the president said he suggested would be for the military to allow people to serve regardless of sexual orientation but to proscribe appropriate relationships. For example, the military currently prohibits officers and enlisted soldiers from having relationships.