The right to fight: A conceptual framework for the analysis of recruitment policy toward gays and lesbians

The worldwide demand by gays and lesbians that they be allowed to openly participate in military service and the ways in which this demand have been handled reveal discrepancies between political culture and actual recruitment practices. This article offers a model drawn from a multiple-case study for explaining recruitment policies toward homosexuals. Arguably, to the extent that the military is used to perform civilian-social roles that determine the social hierarchy beyond the purely professional aspects of the military repertoire, the military command is compelled to modify its professional code - a code that is originally and normatively exclusionist in regard to homosexuals. Owing to those societally prescribed modifications, the resulting inclusionist- exclusionist recruitment policies might be at odds with prominent pillars of the host political culture.