The Modern Independent

Walking the Walk: Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama campaigned on ending the military's discriminatory 'Don't Ask, don't tell' policy and vowed that under his administration he would allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. At his first State of the Union address, President Obama again vowed to repeal DADT.

Republicans and other opponents of DADT's repeal have long deferred to the wisdom of military leadership, which tends to be overwhelmingly conservative, on the subject because it was assumed that they would never come out in favor of DADT's appeal. For example, in 20o6, when asked by Chris Matthews where he stood on the issue of gays in the military, Senator John McCain said:

"the day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, Senator, we ought to change the policy, then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it because those leaders in the military are the ones we give the responsibility to."

Well, three weeks ago, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee advocating for the repeal of DADT:

"No matter how I look at the issue," Adm. Mullen testified, "I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens." Recognizing this as an important civil rights issue, he added that "allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do."

Although more cautious, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, a respected Republican and hold over from the Bush Administration, testified before the same committee and noted that repealing DADT wasn't a question of 'if' but 'when'.

The American people seem to be rallying behind overturning the Clinton era law as well. A poll done by Quinnipiac University following Secretary Gates and Adm. Mullen's testimony found that 57 percent favored a repeal of DADT, while 66 percent believed that banning gays and lesbians from serving openly constituted 'discrimination.'

Not everyone is convinced, however. Despite his deference to military leadership on the issue as early as a few years ago, Senator McCain still actively supports DADT. McCain's flip-flop on the issue wouldn't be as offensive if he weren't so brazen about it. At the Senate hearing, McCain said he was 'disappointed' by the testimony, and he stated bluntly that "this moment of immense hardship for our armed services, we should not be seeking to overturn [DADT]," describing it as "imperfect but effective."

Effective at what, I am left asking myself? Discharging qualified and honorable men? Since 1993, over 13,000 fighting men and women have been dishonorably discharged from the military, many of whom with critical language skills like Mandarin, Arabic, and Farsi, for committing no other crime than being gay.

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is an embarrassing and shameful policy that should be repealed, and Obama shouldn't shy away from the responsibility of repealing it. He has talked the talk, but now he must walk the walk. Conservatives have long argued that allowing gays into the military would disrupt unit cohesion, hurt morale, and suppress enlistment; yet, Britain allowed gays to serve openly in their military back in 2000 despite hearing similar arguments against it. After the ban was lifted, however, unit cohesion and morale suffered no demonstrative decline and enlistments actually went up.

In a rare moment of honesty in Washington, Adm. Mullen stated in his concluding remarks, "I have served with homosexuals since 1968. Everyone in the military has, and we understand that."

When will this madness end?