PRESS RELEASE

NATIONAL GAY & LESBIAN TASK FORCE
1734 14th St., NW, Washington, DC 20009
(202) 332-6483

For immediate release

STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN TASK FORCE 
ON CLINTON MILITARY POLICY

Washington, D.C. July 19, 1993... The National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force rejects President Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell,
don't pursue" policy for gay and lesbian service members. 
NGLTF views the proposal as an unworkable codification of the
current discriminatory policy.

"This policy is simply a re-packaging of discrimination," said Torie
Osborn, NGLTF executive director.  "It enforces the closet, which is an
exhausting exercise in half truths and blatant lies.  The policy is
completely unacceptable."

"We are angry and disappointed that President Clinton failed to exercise
moral leadership on the major civil rights issue of the 90s,"  Osborn
added.  "However, this day marks a recommitment to our unfinished struggle
for equality.  This issue will not go away, and the gay and lesbian civil
rights movement will not go away."

"The 'don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue' proposal is inconsistent,
ambiguous and unenforceable'" said Tanya Domi, former Army captain and
director of the NGLTF Military Freedom Initiative.  "It does not allow a
'zone of privacy' as the Administration states.  In fact, it allows
individual commanders to continue pursuing and discharging gay and lesbian
service members based merely on private statements of their sexual status.
It will lead to arbitrary and selective enforcement."

"This is only the first skirmish in a war that we will win, because we
have justice on our side," Osborn said.  "We will take this fight to the
courts and to the streets.  We will continue to come out, tell the truth
and fight for fairness."

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