January 29, 1993 – President Bill Clinton Holds a Press Conference on “Gays in the Military”

On this day in history, President Bill Clinton addressed the nation regarding his decision to lift the ban excluding homosexual individuals from military service. He argued that in the absence of any other disqualifying conduct, American citizens who wished to serve their country should be able to do so.

President Bill Clinton

He announced that he asked the Secretary of Defense to submit a draft Executive Order to end the policy of exclusion while simultaneously establishing “rigorous standards regarding sexual conduct to be applied to all military personnel.” [Apparently possible sexual misconduct by gays was perceived as more of a threatening issue than the ongoing sexual misconduct in the service by heterosexuals. See, for example, the information on sexual harassment and abuse by heterosexual men towards women in the military in this post.]

Specifically, President Clinton noted:

We also all agree that a very high standard of conduct can and must be applied. So the single area of disagreement is this: Should someone be able to serve their country in uniform if they say they are homosexuals, but they do nothing which violates the code of conduct or undermines unit cohesion or morale, apart from that statement? That is what all the furor of the last few days has been about. And the practical and not insignificant issues raised by that issue are what will be studied in the next 6 months.”

You can read all of his remarks here.