Military recruiters told to accept gay applicants

To make matters even more confusing than they already were after a Federal Judge halted enforcement of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and then the government appealed this decision,  military recruiters were given the go ahead today to accept openly gay recruits.

The Pentagon has advised recruiting commands that they can accept openly gay and lesbian recruit candidates, given the recent federal court decision that bars the military from expelling openly gay service members, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman.

The guidance from the Personnel and Readiness office was sent to recruiting commands on Friday, according to spokeswoman Cynthia Smith.

The recruiters were told that if a candidate admits he or she is openly gay, and qualify under normal recruiting guidelines, their application can be processed. Recruiters are not allowed to ask candidates if they are gay as part of the application process.

That said, they were also told to manage expectations of potential recruits by letting them know that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has not been officially repealed forever and may go back into effect.

“During this interim period of uncertainty, service members must not come out and recruits should use caution if choosing to sign up,” said SLDN Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis in the statement. “The bottom line: if you come out now, it can be used against you in the future by the Pentagon.”

So now gay service members have about the same level of job security as the rest of us…