Miami ? At odds with her party’s leadership, Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida is urging the Pentagon to allow gay men and lesbians to serve in the military — a direct challenge to “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

“We’ve tried the policy. I don’t think it works. And we’ve spent a lot of money enforcing it,” said Ros-Lehtinen, a member of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, who Tuesday co-sponsored a bill allowing gays to serve.

“We investigate people. Bring them up on charges. Basically wreck their lives,” she told The Miami Herald. “People who’ve signed up to serve our country. We should be thanking them.”

Hot-button issue

Although her support won’t change the law overnight, it represents a dramatic break with GOP leadership over a hot-button issue that has split both parties and the nation.

Ros-Lehtinen (with House Republicans Christopher Shays of Connecticut and Jim Kolbe of Arizona) joins 70 Democrats in support of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, introduced last month by Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., to repeal the longtime ban on gays.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell” became law 12 years ago, a compromise after President Bill Clinton sought to relax military policy and allow gays to serve openly. The law, which easily passed in both the House and Senate, prohibits commanders and investigators from prying into service member’s sex lives, but calls for military discharge if someone in the armed service acknowledges he or she is gay.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Ros-Lehtinen said. “There’s no scientific evidence that sexual orientation has an effect on the ability to perform as a military officer or a buck private.”

Nearly 10,000 men and women have been discharged under “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which has cost the U.S. government more than $200 million to enforce since passage in 1993, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a Washington gay-rights group.

‘Just be open’

Last week, a U.S. Army sergeant awarded a Purple Heart after being wounded in Iraq publicly disclosed his homosexuality. He risks going to jail and an early discharge.

“I know a ton of gay men that would be more than willing to stay in the Army if they could just be open,” Sgt. Robert Stout, 23, told The Associated Press. “But if we have to stay here and hide our lives all the time, it’s just not worth it.”

Ros-Lehtinen, 52, said the military “should get the best men and women regardless of their sexual orientation.”

“In Iraq and Afghanistan we are fighting alongside coalition forces that have in them gay men and women. England is actively recruiting gay men and women to join their armed forces.”

Long way to go

Congressmen Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., and Robert Wexler, D-Fla., also co-sponsor the bill.

“If you’re in the military, the only concern should be if you shoot straight — not if you are straight,” Hastings said in an e-mail to The Herald.

The bill — which has no companion legislation in the Senate — has a long way to go before becoming law. First, it needs to get out of committee.

“The odds are very small, unless the top military brass would embrace it,” Wexler said. “When was the last time it snowed in South Florida?”

U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, has consistently voted against gay-rights issues, according to Human Rights Campaign, a pro-gay Washington group that ranks lawmakers on a scale of 0 to 100, 100 being the highest level of support.

Hunter ranks 0; Ros-Lehtinen ranks 86, according to HRC’s 2004 report.

Two years ago, HRC sent Ros-Lehtinen a thank-you note for “the totality of her record, not just one vote.”

She “has really taken a leadership role among Republicans,” said Steve Ralls, communications director for Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

“Her endorsement, her sponsorship of the bill, is going to lead a lot of other moderate Republicans in the House to come on board,” he said.

Ros-Lehtinen says she will staunchly support the repeal.

“It’s a process — a learning process. It takes a long time to get people to change their minds. I don’t get frustrated. If I did, I wouldn’t keep talking about the Cuban embargo every day.”