Letter to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
Letter to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
June 19, 2006
Donald Rumsfeld
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000
Dear Secretary Rumsfeld
Recently, it has come to our attention that an Instruction within Department of Defense regulations regarding the mental health characterizations of service members is outdated. Instruction 1332.38 includes under the heading Developmental Defects and Other Specific Conditions, "Certain Mental Disorders including: ...Homosexuality." The Department of Defense issued this provision in 1996 and recertified it in 2003.
Our hope is that any inadvertent outdated language can be updated so that military regulations are consistent across the board and in keeping with the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) stance reaffirming that, "homosexuality per se implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability, or general social and vocational capabilities."
Currently, there are two Department of Defense regulations dealing with mental health, DoDD 6490.1 "Mental Health Evaluations of Members of the Armed Forces", and DoDI 6490.4 "Requirements for Mental Health Evaluations of Members of the Armed Forces." Consistent with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), these Department of Defense mental health regulations do not include homosexuality on any list of psychological disorders.
We ask that you perform a complete review of DoD medical policies and regulations to ensure they reflect current psychological diagnostic and treatment standards. This is necessary to meet the mental health care needs of all of our service men and women, including the estimated 65,000 lesbian, gay and bisexual service members serving in our Armed Forces today.
We look forward to a dialogue with you on this matter as well as an update on the status of this Instruction from Under Secretary Chu. Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter.
Respectfully,
MARTIN MEEHAN, NEIL ABERCROMBIE, SUSAN DAVIS, ELLEN TAUSCHER, MARK UDALL, LANE EVANS, JAMES LANGEVIN, ADAM SMITH, STEVE ISRAEL, Members of Congress
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ma05_meehan/060620dadt.html