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Outrageous: Gays and Bestiality in the Military

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UPDATE: This story was updated at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011.

Sen. Jim Inhofe is outraged at the outrage caused by his comments on gays and bestiality at a Monday Tulsa Metro Chamber event.

According to the Tulsa World, Inhofe used Monday’s meeting to cover an array of topics: his continued endorsement of Texas Gov. Rick Perry for president, despite the candidate’s many “gaffes”; the Democrats’ war on fossil fuels, including “an orchestrated attack on hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas”; Obamacare; and, oh yeah, gays and bestiality.

From the World:

Inhofe also reassured his audience that the lifting of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gay service members has not “legalized bestiality” in the military.

He explained that, although gay people may now “go in the military, go wide open, and use that for their agenda,” sex with animals is still outlawed by military code.

“When you go out and talk to people on the street, they’ll tell you, ‘Oh, they’ve legalized bestiality,’ … but that hasn’t changed.”

The Huffington Post picked up the story Tuesday, offering some context for Inhofe’s comments. “A provision in the National Defense Authorization Act would repeal the military’s prohibition on sodomy and sex with animals,” Luke Johnson wrote. “Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said the repeal was necessary because the provision is no longer constitutional after the Supreme Court struck down Texas’ anti-sodomy law in Lawrence v. Texas in 2003. The Pentagon said sex with animals would still be illegal if the code was repealed: It would be considered ‘prejudicial to good order and discipline’ and subject to court martial.”

Oklahomans for Equality, Tulsa’s LGBT advocacy organization, responded on Wednesday, issuing a statement via newsletter: “We at Oklahomans for Equality have already reached out to the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce and asked that they publically distance themselves from Senator Inhofe’s comments.”

They did, issuing this statement:

The Tulsa Metro Chamber invites each member of the Oklahoma delegation to a forum annually to provide the Tulsa area business community with updates on business-related issues from Congress. Oklahoma’s senior Senator Jim Inhofe has always been a steadfast supporter of business and industry. He routinely advocates on behalf of the business community and has supported numerous Tulsa Regional OneVoice federal agenda items.

While the Chamber often supports Senator Inhofe’s policy stances related to business matters as described above, his comments at the Dec. 12 forum do not reflect the Chamber’s view on diversity and inclusion. A key part of the Chamber’s strategic plan includes the Mosaic program. Mosaic is a council of business owners, chamber members and volunteers who assist businesses with embracing diversity and inclusion as organizational practices. The Chamber is committed to the belief that an inclusive community improves the economic and social climate in the Tulsa region. For more information on Mosaic, please click here.

The OkEq newsletter went on to say, “Senator Inhofe is out of touch with the citizens of Tulsa and northeast Oklahoma with his continued verbal assault on lesbian and gay personnel serving this country. His comments further disrespect the Oklahoma LGBT veterans who have served silently but faithfully in the defense of our country.”

Though the senator’s statements relating gays to bestiality seemed to come out of left field to listeners in Tulsa, they echo current conservative sentiments regarding the repeal of Article 125 of the National Defense Authorization Act.

From a Stars and Stripes report last week:

Article 125 actually states that any servicemember who “engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same sex or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy.” Offenders face court-martial for any violations.

Cue various conservative groups and bloggers, who promptly attempted to link the recent “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal with this apparent evidence that the military now accepts bestiality — a comparison that military officials this week blasted as false and offensive.

CNSNews.com, a right-wing news agency, first reported on Article 125 on Dec. 1 under the headline “Senate Approves Bill that Legalizes Sodomy and Bestiality in U.S. Military”:

“It’s all about using the military to advance this administration’s radical social agenda,” (Family Research Council President Tony) Perkins told CNSNews.com. “Not only did they overturn Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, but they had another problem, and that is, under military law sodomy is illegal, just as adultery is illegal, so they had to remove that prohibition against sodomy.”

Perkins said removing the bestiality provision may have been intentional—or just “collateral damage.”

“Well, whether it was inadvertent or not, they have also taken out the provision against bestiality,” he said. “So now, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), there’s nothing there to prosecute bestiality.”

Defending himself against the Chamber’s statement, Inhofe issued a statement of his own, saying:

Over the course of the past weeks, my office has received numerous questions from constituents who were understandably concerned about inaccurate information they had received related to an NDAA provision.

The provision in question deleted Article 125 of the military’s UCMJ, bringing the UCMJ in line with last year’s repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. That is why it was necessary to clarify any misconceptions about the issue during my speech to the Tulsa Chamber.

I will not bend to political correctness when addressing these issues and answering the concerns of Oklahomans. My record of opposition to the repeal of DADT is well established, and I will not apologize for my consistently conservative position on social issues. I am extremely disappointed that the Tulsa Chamber would give credibility to the politically-motivated false attacks. This will certainly inform my decisions regarding future engagements with the Tulsa Chamber.

And I am asking the several hundred people who heard my speech to speak up and expose what a disservice this small sub-group of the Chamber has done to me.

Inhofe told the Tulsa World: “The Chamber is lying.”

It’s not clear what he thinks the Chamber is lying about, since Fernandez seemed only to express a difference of opinion on DADT. And whether or not he equates homosexual intercourse with bestiality, it’s clear that the military does, based on Article 125.

But, bestiality is definitely still illegal in the military, Stars and Stripes reported yesterday.

In the end, senators who pushed for the change on behalf of the Pentagon simply dropped the matter, and removed the issue from the annual defense authorization bill now headed for the President’s desk.

Defense officials said the decision will have no effect on the enforcement of military law. Sodomy is permitted; bestiality is not.

Gay rights groups said they were disappointed by the move, noting that it leaves the archaic sodomy language on the books. Conservative groups had been pushing for precisely that, linking the “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal and interspecies sex acts in press releases, despite strong objections from Pentagon officials.

UPDATE: The Tulsa Metro Chamber is backpedalling now and plans to issue an apology to Inhofe today, The McCarville Report Online just reported. From the blog:

The Tulsa Metro Chamber plans to issue an apology Tuesday to U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe for what it called misinterpreting his remarks concerning a defense bill and a provision on gays in the military, according to a letter obtained by the Tulsa World on Monday night.

“In working with Senator Inhofe’s staff, we now understand Senator Inhofe’s remarks were made in an attempt to clarify a legislative matter associated with the repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy,” Chamber President and CEO Mike Neal stated in the letter, which was intended for release as a Tulsa World letter to the editor on Tuesday.

“He provided examples of constituent communication in an effort to refute speculative fears about certain sections of the repealed National Defense Authorization Act.”

Neal said the chamber misunderstood Inhofe’s message during an appearance at a chamber event last week. That misunderstanding, he wrote, led to a misrepresentation of Inhofe’s intentions.

“Senator Inhofe is a steadfast supporter and champion of business issues and we apologize for misinterpreting his remarks,” he wrote. “We appreciate all that he has done for the Chamber, Tulsa, Oklahoma and the Nation.”

—Holly Wall, News Editor