Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Democrats are preparing next year to lift the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on open gays in the military, an uneasy culture-war compromise instituted under the last Democratic administration, should Sen. Barack Obama win the presidency.
Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) said a hearing today by a House Armed Services subcommittee is aimed at educating Congress and the public in preparation for a full-scale push to end the policy, first imposed in 1993 under President Bill Clinton, in the next Congress. By then, Democrats expect to have won the White House and to have expanded their House and Senate majorities.
Tauscher introduced the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would repeal the ban and allow gays to serve openly in the military, along with 121 co-sponsors in 2006. But Democrats have not moved it forward under President Bush because they are certain of his veto. An additional 11 co-sponsors have since signed on to her bill, but so far only five Republicans have done so.
Barack Obama supports the repeal.
Since 1994, 12,342 service men and women have been discharged, according to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a gay rights group. Discharges peaked at 1,273 in 2001, then dropped by about half after the terrorist attacks of 2001.
Barack Obama supports the repeal.
Which is one of the reasons I support Barack Obama.
I understand the antigay nature of DADT and why the gay community want it repealed but, I also see if DADT is repealed, then gay Americans will be dying in greater numbers in some future war the U.S. can’t seem to keep its nose out of. I guess I’m a pacificist at heart.
Lady Liberty says;
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Our military by our own government standards say;
Give me your arms, your heart, your willingness to sacrifice your own lives to serve your country and we will repay you by not asking, so don’t tell and hopefully we’ll all ignore your little problem that we find so shameful.
It is truly long overdue to repeal this ban.
Polls have shown that a large majority of the American public favors allowing gay and lesbian people to serve openly in the U.S. military. A national poll conducted in May 2005 by the Boston Globe showed 79% of participants having nothing against openly gay people from serving in the military. A 2008 Washington Post-ABC News poll showed 75% of Americans said openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the military, including 80% of Democrats, 75% of Independents, and 66% of conservatives.
It’s high time the USA join the rest of the civilized nations of the world and stop the practice of institutionalized discrimination based on the sexual orientation of a soldier.
DADT is exclusively the responsibility of bigots in the Democratic Party. It was written by a bigot named Sam Nunn, one of Obama’s key advisors. Bigoted Democratic (sic) members of Congress joined Republicans in overwhelmingly voting it in. Then the same Dixiecrat right-winger who boasted on Southern religious radio stations about his signature on DOMA, Bill Clinton, signed DADT into law.
Our objection to DADT ought to be on the basis that it’s a bigoted law passed by a party of bigots that harms GLBT GI’s. We have to recognize that it’s a trap to link support for civil rights with support for the oil piracy in Iraq or the dangerous and deranged threats of Obama against the Pakistanis or of Clinton and McCain against the Iranians. They are not linked and have nothing to do with capturing the mass murderer Bin Laden. The vast bulk of US military activity is centered on acquiring hegemony over the regions oil resources not on capturing Bin Laden.
Just as we support the GI’s civil rights we should support the antiwar movement and let everyone know that we think that volunteering for ‘service’ in a period when the US military and their allies are murdering Muslims on a vast scale to steal their oil is volunteering for genocide. We should encourage everyone to stay 0ut of the armed forces.
We should be very clear that we join with our allies in the antiwar movement to demand that all US military, security and mercenary forces be withdrawn from the region and that the US cut the purse strings that finance the apartheid and ethnic cleansing policies used against Palestinians. We need allies to win our fight but we won’t get them if we’re seen supporting the Clinton/Bush genocide in Iraq by encouraging enlistment or re-upping.
Barak Obama only supports the ban because he plans on continuing the war there indefinitely and he’ll need cannon fodder. He has the same perspective on Iraq as Bush, the Clintons and McCain. Thats why it’s unprincipled to support him.
oops – Barak Obama only supports lifting the ban because he plans on continuing the war there indefinitely and he’ll need cannon fodder. He has the same perspective on Iraq as Bush, the Clintons and McCain. That’s why it’s unprincipled to support him.
The Pentagon needs bodies to keep on, keepin’ on the neoconservatives wet dream of building a vast American empire in the Middle East stretching from Israel and running through Iraq, Iran Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Somehow, policymakers have come to believe if the US controls this region of the Muslim world (except for Israel) all of our security and oil problems will magically vanish.
Gay soldiers? Lesbian soldiers? They’re bodies and the Pentagon is running out of bodies.
Why would self-respecting queer want to enlist in the military and sign onto kill Arabs? I don’t get it.
As a conservative I am embarrassed to know my country discriminates against gay men and women who desire to serve their country.
Twenty-four nations including Great Britain and Israel to name a few, have open service policies for their gay and lesbian citizens who want to wear the uniform.
I do not understand what Clinton thought he would accomplish with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
I love a man in a uniform!
This is long overdue for repeal. Back in the day, Truman just integrated the armed forces with an executive order. Is there any reason Obama couldn’t just do the same thing when he gets in, to integrate gays fully into the military?
Its About time!
Glad to get rid of this Clintonian equivocation!
When I was on active duty, many of the Army personnel I served with said that as long as a soldier can shoot straight, they didn’t care if he wasn’t straight.
And that’s all that really matters.
I never understood DADT. Clinton was hugely popular and the Dems controlled the Congress yet, when a few, vocal, southern homophobes in the U Senate screeched, Clinton folded and offered up DADT as a “compromise.” This wasn’t leadership. It was cowardice.
Woodcliffe: “Gay soldiers? Lesbian soldiers? They’re bodies and the Pentagon is running out of bodies.”
That is keeping an eye on underlying military realities that are shaping policy. If not for Bush’s militant, Christian fundamentalism, DADT would have been repealed by now.
General comment: DADT is not a “compromise.” It is a more draconian version of the military ban than the one that was there before. Also, DADT is federal statute while the old ban was merely an executive order.
If gay people wish to serve, I say great. But what about survivor benefits if a man or woman is killed in battle? Will their same gender spouse be able to receive survivor benefits? None of this is clear.
I do not wish to serve next to an open homosexual in the service. The Military did just find with out them for over 200 years, and you know the old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
HOOYAH
United States Navy