A commentary that ran yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. Kenneth Katz, a sexually transmitted disease specialist at San Diego County's Health and Human Services Agency, is already creating a stir. In the piece, Katz writes that the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy prohibiting gays from serving openly in the military helps spread disease and puts service members' health at risk. Military personnel afraid of giving their sexual histories to military doctors can miss treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, including the AIDS virus, Katz insists, and may spread them to others.
Katz, who cites a study saying that during a 2-month period in 2002, active-duty U.S. Navy sailors accounted for nine percent of the clients of a gay men's health clinic in San Diego that was run by a community-based organization, also culls statistics from a UCLA report estimating that 66,000 gays, lesbians and bisexuals serve in the U.S. military, or 2.2 percent of personnel.
Katz writes:
Reaction from a Reuters report to Katz's editorial were contentious:
