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Has "Don't ask, don't tell," the policy reviled by gay rights groups of barring openly gay people from the US military, actually served as a welcome escape hatch for queers-- and others-- caught unhappily in the armed forces? That, ironically, is the spin put by the US military on the record number of homosexual discharges in 1998. Are they trying to cover something up?

Discharges under "Don't ask, don't tell"-- a record 1145 in 1998-- are cited by gay groups such as Servicemembers Legal Defense Network as proof of the military's homophobic heavy-handedness. But some military spokespeople claim the real story is that people are using the as a way of getting a quick and relatively painless divorce from military service.

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"Throughout society there are more people declaring their sexual orientation-- coming out of the closet, shall we say-- and there's no reason the military should be any different," said Pentagon spokesperson Kenneth Bacon, shortly after the latest stats were released.

One Pentagon Air Force spokesperson, Ti'jae Gibson, claimed that "These [discharged] people walked into their boss and said, 'I'm gay' or 'I engage in homosexual or bisexual activity.'"

David Smith, Air Force spokesperson at Randolph Air Force Base, told reporters that "In virtually every self-initiated disclosure, the second statement made is, 'I'd also like to be discharged.'" Discharge comes automatically without dishonor, Smith went on to say, to any soldier who confesses to being gay, and the law prohibits military officials from challenging such confessions.

A reading of the law, however, shows Smith to be incorrect: "Nothing. . . shall be construed to require that a member of the armed forces be processed for separation. . . when a determination is made that the member engaged in conduct or made statements for the purpose of avoiding or terminating military service, and separation of the member would not be in the best interest of the armed forces."

If this apparent legal misunderstanding has resulted in the doubling of discharged "gay" or "bisexual" recruits since 1993, the year Congress created "Don't ask, don't tell," it has had its greatest affect in the Air Force, particularly at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, from where have come 1,054 of 5,045 recruits discharged for homosexuality. Last year, 293 out of a total of 414 recruits were discharged for homosexuality-- most during the first month of basic training.

Of those recruits who were forcibly discharged, one case involved a lesbian couple who had announced marriage vows, and 22 other individuals faced expulsions after they were caught in same-sexual acts, according to official reports.

The overall Air Force total represented a 29 percent increase over 1997, a rate overshadowed only by the Army's 50 percent gain from 197 to 310 homosexual discharges during the same period. Gay discharges in the Marines went down from 78 to 76, and the Navy's rate decreased from 413 to 345.

Seeking to find a plausible explanation for the increase in "Don't ask, don't tell" expulsions in the Air Force, General Lloyd Newton ordered a survey of instructors and trainees. The top brass has stonewalled outside scrutiny of the report. However, officials say the results show that most self-outing recruits are looking for an easy escape.

But the gay Servicemembers Legal Defense Network disputes the claim. "Military leaders have turned a blind eye to the continued asking, pursuit, and harassment of gays, lesbians and bisexuals serving our country," they say, with the situation being especially bad at Lackland Air Force Base.

According to an investigation by the Miami Herald, the unbalanced number of Air Force discharges follows from extreme and uneven enforcement of "Don't ask, don't tell." Recruits are most likely to be drummed out of the Air Force, which unlike other armed forces branches, according to the Herald, has a special internal agency looking into sexual heresy. Some instructors harassed suspected gay people and elicited confessions from others in order to purge the ranks of "worthless" recruits who are not necessarily gay.

Instructors trying to look good, career-conscious sex police, homesick plebes, born-again pacifists-- who would have guessed "Don't ask, don't tell" would prove so variously useful? **