lflilll BRIEFS Irv susan murray & Iletii I'fllIlllSlIll European High Court Rejects Britain’s Ban on Gays in the Military hile federal courts here win the United States continue to hide behind the robotic mantra of “deference to the military” in upholding the ludicrous “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban against gays'in the military, the highest court in Europe recently issued a water- shed opinion striking down Britain’s ban on gays and les- bians in its armed forces. In the cases of Lustig-Prean & Beckett v. United Kingdom and Smith & Grady v. United Kingdom , the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that dis- charging gay and lesbian service members who had been “outed” by third parties violated Europe’s Convention on Human Rights, a document akin to our Bill of Rights. The Court ruled that Britain had violated the service members’ right to privacy not ""*only“by discharging‘ ‘them ’from- the military, but by conducting a witch hunt in which the service members were asked incredibly intrusive questions about their private sex lives, (one lesbian in Britain’s air force was asked whether she and her partner had a sexual relationship with their teenage foster daughter!) Like the U.S. government, the British government had argued that it needed to ban gays from its military because “the presence of open or suspected homosexuals in the armed forces would have a substantial and negative effect on morale ... and fighting power.” Unlike our Congress and our federal courts, however, the European Court of Human Rights didn’t buy . Britain’s nonsensical rationale. First, the Court pointed out that there was absolutely no proof or evidence that allowing openly gay people to serve in Britain’s military would have any adverse effect whatsoever on morale, fighting power, or military readiness. Second, the Court pro- claimed that even if heterosexu- al service members have a “pre- disposed bias” against serving ‘I with'*gays, “these negative atti- tudes cannot, of themselves, be...sufi'1cient justification” for kicking openly gay people out of the military, “any more than similar negative attitudes towards those of a different race” would be suff1cientjustifi- cation for kicking people of color out of the military. Vermnt CgRES Third, the Court noted that to the extent any problems arise in integrating openly gay and les- bian people into the military, these problems can be dealt with by imposing a strict code of con- duct on all personnel, just as was done when women and people of color were integrated into the military. The Court’s ruling is a water- shed in many ways. First of all, the decision affects all 41 coun- tries who are members of the Council of Europe -- countries as diverse as Iceland and Turkey. In writing its opinion, the Court referred to the “European consensus” on this issue, stating that only a minori- ty of European countries have a blanket ban on gays in the mili- tary, and that in general, European countries are rapidly doing away with discriminatory laws against gay people. The decision is also impor- tant because it marks the first time the European high court has applied the European Convention’s prohibition against sexual orientation dis- crimination in the employment context; in the past, the prohibi- tion had only been applied to overturn sodomy laws. Although this case was limit- ed to the issue of military employment, it is possible that the Court will extend its same rationale in a future case to rule December 1999 | Out in the Mountains_|9 bian service members in our country remain subject to a patently discriminatory policy, based solely on fear and preju- dice. V Susan Murray and Beth Robinson are attorneys at Langrock Sperry & Wool in Middlebury, Vermont. This col- S C m umn features timely information about legal issues of interest to our community. We hope to pro- vide information about impor- tant laws and court cases that may aflect our rights, as well as practical nuts and bolts advice jbr protecting ourselves and our families. If you ’d like to see us cover a particular topic, write OITM or call us at 388-6356. 0 I’ C loundation of Vermont ' The Samara Foundatr charitable foundation , support and strengthen Vermont's gay, lesbian, _ bisexual, and transgendered communities i l * today and build an endowment for tomorrow. that no government in,Europe, _ 4 I can discriminate against gays and lesbians in public employ- ment merely because co-work- ers may be prejudiced. Here in Vermont, we already have a bill outlawing employ- ment discrimination against gays and lesbians, but unfortu- A nately this law doesn’t extend to the federal military; gay and les- Get “wrapped-up” at The Book Rack & Children’s Pages this holiday season and support Vermont CARES! Choose from a wonderful selection of books and gifts for adults and children at The Book Rack & Children’s Pages and then have your gifts wrapped right at the store. All donations for gift-wrapping go directly to VT CARES! E .E ose mission is to fiook RACK EEEE mh¢ 65 <._\'\’\l “Last year, gift-wrapping at The Book Rack was a huge success—it was fun for volunteers, efficient for customers, and VT CARES loved getting this extra support during the holidays, when clients really need it.”—— Garrett Kimberly, VT CARES wwwuwwwnwwwwwvw The Book Rack & Children’s Pages Champlain Mill Winooski Ph: 655-0231 Toll-Free: 1-877-BOOKRACK Fax: 655-0232 E-mail: bookrack@together.net Anyone interested in volunteering to wrap gifis should call Marty at VT CARES, 863-2437. iiiiiiifiiiifiiéiiiiiiiiiiii %% %%%¥%%%%%%%%%%%