WASHINGTON — A New York congressman yesterday jokingly suggested the Bush administration may fear a “platoon of lesbians” more than terrorists in Baghdad, given the military’s resistance to letting homosexuals openly serve.

Rep. Gary Ackerman’s criticism of Pentagon policy came as Secretary of State Rice testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. Ackerman, a Democrat of New York City, complained to Ms. Rice that the military had fired Arabic and Farsi translators after learning they were gay.

“For some reason, the military seems more afraid of gay people than they are against terrorists. They’re very brave with the terrorists, and if the terrorists ever got a hold of this information, they get a platoon of lesbians to chase us out of Baghdad,” said Mr. Ackerman, prompting laughter in the hearing room.

The lawmaker, who in 2002 voted for the invasion of Iraq but is now a fierce opponent of the war, made one other crack, too, in reference to the Bush administration’s opposition to gay marriage.

Mr. Ackerman suggested the Department of State could hire dozens of outed — and ousted — former military translators.

“Can we marry up these two — or maybe that’s not the right word. … Can we have some kind of union of those two issues?” Mr. Ackerman asked, prompting a fresh outburst of laughter.

Ms. Rice, in diplomatic fashion, played it cool.

“Congressman, I’m not aware of the availability of people, but I will certainly look,” she said, adding that her department has quadrupled the number of employees in critical languages.

A Washington-based gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, said Mr. Ackerman was right to criticize the military’s policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” concerning gays.

“It is clear the congressman was underscoring the ridiculousness of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy and how it’s hurting our efforts to fight the war on terror,” HRC spokesman Luis Vizcaino said.