Kill Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Now
President Obama, tear down this policy.
Amy Brian was in the Kansas National Guard, had served in Iraq and survived an IED blast there. Back in Kansas, she was hard at work trying to bring some order to the local government purchase program, trying to save the government money. Although the fact that she was gay was widely known, a civilian in her office officially complained. As a result, an apparently good soldier was turned loose from the military just when people like her are most needed.
I didn’t know one thing this article points out — that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is particularly discriminatory against women:
Women are discharged at a rate disproportionate to their presence in the military, according to a report by the Washington-based Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending discrimination resulting from the “don’t ask-don’t tell” policy.
In 2003, 33 percent of all discharges based on homosexual conduct involved women, although females comprised 15 percent of the military personnel, the report said.
President Obama and his aides have signaled that this policy is ripe for repeal. Recently, though, Obama has asked the DOD to study the effects of the repeal of the policy, without establishing a timeline to get it done. While I understand that Team Obama will not want to repeat the Clinton debacle when he signed the order to let gays openly serve, the fact is that much of the political and practical landscape has dramatically shifted. A CNN poll from June notes that American think — by a 79% margin — that openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the military.
Friends of mine in the DOD (but not directly involved in the issue) tell me that this “study” that Obama is calling for is largely going to be treated as a survey of what training, personnel regs, legal and other internal changes the DOD will need to take to make sure that openly gay people can serve with the same protections as all others. There seems to be an acknowledgment that this policy will change, and Obama should make sure that he is using this moment to hasten that change and not let whatever neanderthal elements of the DOD (and Congress) slowroll this thing.
Tags: Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Gay Rights
Obama has asked the DOD to study the effects of the repeal of the policy,
This is BS. Had Truman pulled the same shit the military would have taken years to desegregate.
33% lesbian conduct. It’s not a morale booster?WTF.
They did take years to desegregate.
Truman signed his Executive Order in 1948 and it wasn’t until the end of or close to the end of the Korean War that desegregation was a done deal. And in between there was a southern senator or two who kept trying to mandate giving soldiers and sailors a choice in whether they wanted to serve in a segregated or desegregated units. Even by the end of the Korean war, desegregation wasn’t all that comfortable in the Army — it took a long time and alot of work before they could claim their very real leadership in this thing.
Since gay people are maybe 10% of the population, we’d be better off restricting the military to gay people only.
With the military reduced to 10% of what it is today, it would be impossible to get any serious
war going.
The sooner DADT is repealed, the better. I can’t believe we’re throwing out such valuable and productive members of the military because of some people’s prejudice.
While I’d really like to see DADT disappear tomorrow, the study idea (even without a timeline) is actually a good one. Obama has made it clear that he intends to end DADT and intends to give the military brass some time to come to grips with that which the field-grade officers, NCOs, and enlisted have already accepted de facto if not de jure.
What this should mean is that during the “study period” most discharges and other punitive activities should be frozen during the study–and like gay marriage in Massachusetts the question now becomes “how long” rather than “whether.”
Good thinking, Steve. If they put a freeze on DADT discharges while they study the issue, I would be ok with it. I just hope that people like Amy Brian can be reinstated, with back pay.
UI
They won’t actually freeze the discharges during the study; it’s just that most local JAGs are not about to look that stupid about hurrying them along.
Think about it this way: nobody wants to be the last person shot in a war, and nobody wants to be the last JAG officer who put a gay soldier out of the Army.
Truth in advertising: how this will work is that the Army will pretty much stop discharges, and so will the Air Force (which has been pretty non-compliant for about 2-3 years). The Navy will slow down but not stop the discharges, and the Marines will do whatever it is Marines do…