Panel urges ending UCMJ’s sodomy ban

[unhappycamper]

Panel urges ending UCMJ’s sodomy ban
By Lisa M. Novak, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, October 27, 2009

A panel of legal scholars has suggested that Congress remove sodomy as a crime punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a recommendation that could boost efforts to end a ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military.

The Commission on Military Justice recommended that Article 125, which deals with sodomy, be repealed, arguing that “most acts of consensual sodomy committed by consenting military personnel are not prosecuted, creating a perception that prosecution of this sexual behavior is arbitrary.”

In its report — dated October 2009 — the commission suggested several changes be made to the UCMJ, including a requirement that law enforcement officials videotape interrogations. The panel’s discussion of Article 125 has gotten the attention of “don’t ask, don’t tell” opponents.

“Public opinion about private, consensual sexual conduct has shifted dramatically since the military sodomy ban was written into law almost a hundred years ago,” according to Nathaniel Frank, a senior research fellow at the Palm Center, a University of California, Santa Barbara, research institute focusing on gays and the military.

“To say that gays should be banned from the military for this outdated reason makes no sense,” Frank was quoted as saying in a center news release.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65663