The Department of Defense has found it increasingly difficult to keep the closet door shut. Last week two servicemen came out on national TV a media event loosely orchestrated by gay veterans’ groups and Hill staffers to coincide with the new bill. Naval Lt. Tracy Thorne, a 25-year-old navigator/bombardier, told NEWSWEEK that he decided to appear on “Nightline” in order “to see some change and create some public awareness.” The navy quickly moved to discharge Thorne, as well as Keith Meinhold, the petty officer first class who came out on “ABC World News Tonight”; a navy spokesman refused to comment beyond saying, “We follow DOD policy.” This wasn’t the only case of anti-gay discrimination in Washington: officials at a federal relief agency who had coerced a gay employee into providing the names of other homosexuals last week destroyed the list-after being threatened with a House investigation.

Someday, Desert Storm may be viewed as a major turning point for gays in the military. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney was forced to concede that the security argument was “a bit of an old chestnut” after The Advocate, a gay magazine, outed a senior civilian DOD official who had access to classified materials during the war. But while gay civilians are welcome in the Pentagon, Cheney insists that barring gays from the armed forces is necessary to preserve discipline and morale in close quarters. Critics say homophobia, pure and simple, underlies the last remaining military taboo. “Symbolically, the military represents masculinity more than any institution other than professional sports,” says John D’Emilio, a history professor at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, who is a member of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s board of directors. “The argument of morale can be reduced to the fear of straight men about being stared at in the shower.” Gays dismiss such concerns. “We cannot control our sexual orientation,” says Thorne. “We can control our sexual desire.”

The official line that homosexuality is “incompatible with military service” tells only half the story. Studies suggest that, like the population at large, the armed forces are 10 percent gay, and de facto policy is inconsistent. One night during Desert Storm, Air Force E-4 Leo Mitchem laughed along at some “fag jokes,” then told his buddies: “Chill out, I’m one of them.” Neither the servicemen nor his superiors cared, says Mitchem, who was honorably discharged after the war. But there are also frequent efforts to weed out gays and lesbians. After two sailors pleaded guilty this winter to “sodomy and indecent acts” aboard the USS Blue Ridge, based in Yokosuka, Japan, the navy began what gay activists have called a “witch hunt” on the high seas. Investigators pressured seamen to confess and betray shipmates; of the 40 or so men targeted, 13 have been discharged so far.

Such arm-twisting is not a military monopoly. Four years ago Jerald Johnson, a management analyst for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), applied for security clearance. After his homosexuality was raised as an issue, he objected that there were plenty of other gay staffers with clearance. At that point, security officers at FEMA asked him to name names. He refused and withdrew his request. When he reapplied for clearance three years later, his boss again demanded a list; that time he complied. When gay Congressman Barney Frank heard about the incident and objected, FEMA quickly repudiated its actions. Frank has called the episode “an aberration”; many gay activists say that the federal bureaucracy is, in fact, a basically tolerant workplace.

Critics of the Pentagon’s policy believe it’s only a matter of time before the ban against gays, like earlier ones against blacks and women, becomes a thing of the past. Though politicians are unlikely to embrace the cause during an election year, polls show a majority of Americans believe gays should be allowed into the armed forces. And it is expensive keeping them out: government reports show it costs tens of millions of dollars every year to recruit, investigate, dismiss and replace gay personnel. Activists plan to keep up pressure on the brass with lawsuits; ultimately, they say, the Pentagon will find it easier to switch than fight. Until then, gays in the armed forces face a painful choice between serving their country and remaining true to themselves.