GI's Who Oppose Homosexuality Beginning To Look At CO Status As DADT To End

The New York Times reported last week that the impending end of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy is creating a new group of putative conscientious objectors. The Center on Conscience & War, which counsels GI's seeking to become conscientious objectors, has begun to receive calls from members of the military who say they consider homosexuality an abomination and want to become a conscientious objector because they cannot serve alongside gay soldiers. J.E. McNeil, the Center's director, says that this sort of objection does not fit within the legal requirements to become a CO. That requires religious opposition to participating in war in any form. (50 USC App Sec. 456(j)). The military personnel here are not objecting to participating in war; they are objecting to those with whom they are participating.