Ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

[cboy4]

The New Republic: When Barack Obama Decides To Repeal The Policy, He'll Have A Much Easier Time Of It Than Bill Clinton


Nov. 25, 2008

(The New Republic) This column was written by Nathaniel Frank.

Last month, retired Air Force General Merrill McPeak, one of Barack Obama's highest-ranking military supporters during the campaign, reiterated his opposition to openly gay service. When McPeak participated in the debates over lifting the ban in 1993, he was Secretary of the Air Force. Like most military members who shared his position then, McPeak couched his sentiments in terms of military effectiveness, saying that homosexuality was "incompatible with military service" and would "work against unit cohesion."

But behind the scenes, military leaders were meeting with members of the religious right and settling on a communications strategy to claim that unit cohesion would be undermined by letting gays serve, while minimizing the real reasons for the resistance, which were moral and cultural: Social conservatives opposed homosexuality and felt that allowing equal treatment in the military would send a dangerous message of tolerance for something they frowned upon. While conducting research for my forthcoming book on gays in the military, for instance, I learned that leaders of the National Association of Evangelicals were persuaded by their contacts in the military that highlighting the "practical concerns" of gay service instead of the moral ones would make a more effective case against lifting the ban. The sociologist, Charles Moskos, credited with coming up with the idea for "don't ask, don't tell," told me in an interview in 2000, "Fuck unit cohesion--I don't care about that." For him, too, the gay ban was a moral issue, even though he said in public at the time of the debate that it was about military effectiveness.

Fifteen years later, military men like McPeak are still using the unit cohesion line against gay service, though less persuasively. In his recent comments, McPeak openly admitted that his position is based on his own personal intolerance and that of other senior military leaders. "I couldn't see how I could become an advocate for open homosexuality in Air Force combat units," McPeak said last month. In order to lift the ban on open gays, "the service leadership will have to go to the gay and lesbian annual ball and lead the first dance," something he and other brass have no intention of doing. Last year, General Peter Pace, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defended the gay ban on grounds that homosexuality was "immoral."

Though Obama has said he wants to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," he has also stated that he won't be "out front" on the issue and will work cautiously with the military leadership to make the change. The Washington Times reported on Friday that he might not seek a repeal until 2010. Still, the admissions of McPeak and Pace show why he may have a far easier time lifting the ban today than Bill Clinton did at the beginning of his presidency: When a united front of generals insists that letting open gays serve in the military would wreck the force, it's a tough line to combat; but when the sheer weight of research on this issue forces even military brass to cast their resistance in terms of personal morality, the front has begun to crumble.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/25/opinion/main4632720.shtml

[Kurska]

1. DADT is doomed by simple math

More people are coming out of the closet then ever, therefore less and less of the population is becoming fit for military service based on a stupid rule that is becoming more and more antiquated by the day.

Even the simplest man should see that DADT is doomed, whether it be by the next big war where we need all the drafte's we can get or by obama's executive order. To say that DADT is in anything other then a walking ghost phase is laughable.

[CTyankee]

2. Obama is right. It should come from within the military. I heard a program on NPR

on the don't ask, don't tell policy and they were pretty convincing about how wrong this was from not only the individual rights perspective but also from the military preparedness perspective. We need our talented gay people already trained in our military. We invest lots of money into their training. Why throw this away?

"Don't ask, don't tell" was and is a significant failure of Bill Clinton's administration. I was so disappointed in him to do that, so soon out of the box in his term.

Let's not let this tarnish Barack Obama's administration! It's a bad policy and let the brass tell it the way it is so the RWingers can get it loud and clear!

[RedLetterRev]

3. It would be sweeter to me

to have them crumble and have to admit from the inside it was always a stupid rule. When I was in there were plenty of gay people; I was far from alone. Back then we weren't so harassed. DADT just turned things into a witch-hunt that never needed to be.

I do worry about the neonazis and freakogelicals infesting the military now that makes life for GLBT people near impossible. The culture is changing at the top; we see evidence of that. The culture has to change in the ranks, too.