March 2, 2009 4:43 PM

A Repeal Of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell?"

By
Brian Montopoli
Topics
Domestic Issues
(AP)
California Rep. Ellen Tauscher, a Democrat, will tomorrow introduce legislation in the House to repeal the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that bans gay soldiers from serving openly in the military.

"This law has failed our country and our military for 15 years," Tauscher said at a news conference. "It harms military readiness and discriminates against patriotic young men and women who want to serve their country. It's time for Congress to right this wrong."

Tauscher planned to introduce the legislation today but did not because the weather kept the House out of session, according to communications director Jonathan Kaplan. The bill has 112 co-sponsors, he told Hotsheet, though no Republicans are among them.

President Obama has vowed to support a legislative repeal of the policy, something polling suggests a majority of Americans support. But with so many major fights on its agenda, the White House might be wary of taking on the issue anytime soon.

When Bill Clinton took on gays in the military soon after he came into office (crafting the much-maligned "don't ask" compromise in the process), he lost political capital and brought about criticism from both sides of the debate.

As Politico reports, political analysts warn that the issue could "galvanize social conservatives and other political opponents, strain the new president's relations with the military, and force him to squander valuable political capital that is needed on more pressing matters, particularly his economic agenda."

Gay activists counter that Mr. Obama has reached out to the military far more effectively than Mr. Clinton. As Politico notes, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is pushing hard for a repeal, potentially as part of the fiscal year 2010 defense authorization bill likely sent to lawmakers in April.

The White House has said it wants a study of the impact of gays serving openly in the military, a process that could last a year, according to according to Logo's Web site 365 Gay. Sen. Ted Kennedy is reportedly working on a Senate bill to repeal the ban and seeking a Republican co-sponsor.

Mr. Obama's former rival for the presidency, Sen. John McCain, last year explained his opposition to repealing the policy.

"I believe the polarization of personnel and breakdown of unit effectiveness is too high a price to pay for well-intentioned but misguided efforts to elevate the interests of a minority of homosexual service members above those of their units," he said.

In her remarks today, Tauscher noted that Colin Powell, former Senator Sam Nunn, and 28 retired generals and admirals have called on the Pentagon to repeal the ban.

"There is no evidence to support a continued ban on open service, and every reason to allow lesbian and gay Americans to serve our country," she said, according to her prepared remarks. Tauscher pointed to other countries in which the integration of openly gay soldiers has gone smoothly.

"It is no longer a question of if we will change this law – it's a question of when," she said.

Add a Comment See all 58 Comments
by MrBag May 25, 2009 1:03 PM EDT
I agree with Soldier4God. But, I also want to add my own comments here. First of all, homosexuality is NOT genetically coded. It is a lifestyle, therefore a CHOICE. People are NOT made that way. But I do agree with dibs977 homosexuals do have the same basic human rights as everyone else. Even though homosexuals chose to sin against God by choosing the homosexual lifestyle, I am still commanded by God to love everyone the way that God loves them, because everyone is a creation of God even though they choose wrongly.
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by Kaotik_kitty420 April 19, 2009 12:23 AM EDT
I'd like to add some things...
1. Christianity is a joke! All of it is...Blind faith for something that has never been proven. How can you tell people to turn to god and follow him when God is supposedly the creator of humans? He created killers, rapists and all the bad people in this world. What kind of "Father" would create these things and put his children through more and more **** every day of their lives?

2. For you to say that homosexuality is wrong and quote the bible is just stupid. You are a hypocrite! Believing that any human is bad or wrong for something that they did not choose to be. Homosexuality is not a choice!

3. I hear christians always saying "We are all god's children" "Love each other" BLAH BLAH BLAH!!! It's all a bunch of crap to make you look good.
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by Kaotik_kitty420 April 19, 2009 12:16 AM EDT
In response to Soldier4God, it is YOU who are wrong! Aren't we all children of god? Weren't we supposed to be created in God's image? If you're saying homosexuality is wrong you're saying that God is wrong. And btw, the bible was written by a bunch of drunk guys almost 1000 years after Jesus was dead.
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by Soldier4God March 16, 2009 12:37 AM EDT
Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.-Leviticus 18:22
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.-Romans 1:24-27
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.-2 Chronicles 7:14
But if a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life. Because he considers all the offenses he has committed and turns away from them, he will surely live; he will not die.-Ezekiel 18:27,28
So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God-Romans 14:12
I'm a Christian in the military and I'm strongly against repealing DADT. To my fellow service members who say "It's just 1 more person to catch a bullet besides me" and "One more person to go to Iraq & Afghanistan so i don't have to"...how could you be so shallow & narrow minded? Where are our morals? Where is our sense of right & wrong, America? Homosexuality is wrong, it is morally & physiologically wrong. If we embrace homosexuality in our military, open or otherwise, instead of rebuking it & offering help to those caught in its grip, our country will be continuing its march towards moral emptiness. We will be one step closer to rotting from the inside out. We cannot & must not simply look the other way or act like its normal or justify it by claiming low recruiting or manning shortages, etc. God has forbidden homosexuality and condemns those who participate in it, as well as those who knowingly allow & approve of it. It doesn't matter that we're the most powerful country in the world with the best military, eventually our disregard for God and His Word will ruin us if we don't turn to Him. Regardless of what many of my fellow modern day Americans think, our country was founded on Godly principles.
"The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which heaven itself has ordained." "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can exist apart from religious principle." "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible!"-George Washington
"The Bible is the rock upon which this Republic rests!"-Andrew Jackson
"It is the duty of nations as well as men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the LORD." "The only assurance of our nation's safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion."-Abraham Lincoln
"If American democracy is to remain the greatest hope of humanity, it must continue abundantly in the faith of the Bible"-Calvin Coolidge
"Our strength lies in spiritual concepts. It lies in public sensitivities to evil. Our greatest danger is not from invading armies. Our dangers are that we may commit suicide from within by complaisance with evil, or by public tolerance of scandalous behavior."-Herbert Hoover
"We need to remember that the separation of church and state must never mean the separation of religious values from the lives of public servants. . . If we who serve free men today are to differ from the tyrants of this age, we must balance the powers in our hands with God in our hearts."-Lyndon B. Johnson
"Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what our senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under."-Ronald Reagan
Need I say more? I say to my fellow Christians, please, take a stand for what's right in God's eyes. Set a great example for our country & the world, help homosexuals turn from their detestable ways, share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. For everyone reading this, like it or not...we will all have to answer to Him.
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by Itsaboutlove March 9, 2009 4:46 PM EDT
In response to "Kaotik_kitty420": It's far more than "multiple suicides". The gay/bisexual/trans youth of America alone are FOUR TIMES more likely to commit suicide than the heterosexual youth of this country.

Once "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is repealed, I feel the ignorant, idiotic stigma and discrimination surrounding gays (the epidemy of which is displayed in comments such as those by architekker-2009) will be much more able to be seen for exactly what it is. It is time we in the United States of America treat all Americans equally and as people, remember we all have that in common.
Gays in the military don't wan't the right to "flaunt" their sexuality. They want the right to not have to hide their lives, just as heterosexual soilders can talk about their girlfriends and families, gays deserve the same ability. It's not some conspiracy to make the masses accept gays as some seem to believe-- it's only making lives of all of Americans who want to defend their country fair and equally-open. It's ridiculous for any country to ask their people to serve and in doing so, ask a certain group to serve under a false pretense of identity. Any gay militant should be able to be a proud soldier, and a proud homosexual, transgender, bisexual, pansexual or heterosexual.
The level on which people judge and condemn others because of who they consentually love is a very low, primate-like level which should have no affect on all the different melting-pot Americans who want to protect our very freedoms including freedom of expression. It's about who we are and who we love. It is absolutely hypocritical for the US military to discriminate the ability for gays to openly serve as homosexual soldiers as they go off to preserve and protect our constitutional rights such as freedom of speech. Do you realize Don't Ask Don't Tell's full hypocritical capacity?! No more opressed people defending "freedom"; not in my free country.
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by Kaotik_kitty420 March 5, 2009 2:40 AM EST
I think anyone who hates or judges anyone based on their sexuality should be ashamed. It's biggots like that who keeps this country from being truly united. Any sort of prejudice is wrong. Homosexuals, bisexuals, what have you should be allowed to serve. Whether or not they are gay does not keep them from being worthy or hard working to fight for this country. For them to stand up and want to serve is a damn good thing and I support it 100%.

A comment earlier said "What I wonder, is why do gays have this drive to "announce" their sexual preference ? Why not just keep your private life, private ?"

Well why should they have to be ashamed of who they are? They did not choose to be that way and it is something that they have to face. Keeping it in the shadows and hiding from who they truly are has not only caused serious mental damage to many people but has also been the cause of multiple suicides. Expecting them to hide who they truly are means that you feel they should be ashamed of it. Nobody should be ashamed of themselves for something that is out of their control. I didn't choose to be who I am but I am not ashamed of it.

Let people be who they are and don't discriminate against those who are proud or accepting of it. They are people, just like you or me. And no they do not hit on everything and everyone they meet, some do but that doesn't mean they all do it.
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by winstrv March 4, 2009 12:13 AM EST
Served thirty years in the service and glad I'm out. When this decision is made and you can't fill the ranks, don't bring back the draft unless it only applies to gays. For those who say it makes no difference, I want you to be the roommate of a gay in the barracks. I also want them living next to you and your kids in the housing areas because you must give them the same rights. Interesting that the ones that are pushing this change have never served and/or have retired and won't have to deal with the problems this will surely bring. I know someone will bring up race, as in this is what was said when integration was introduced. I just saved you the space. If you think this is the same, I disagree but we all have our opinions.
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by architekker-2009 March 3, 2009 2:15 PM EST
Guys in the military, be sure not to bend an reach a bar of soap in the shower.
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by bytheway59 March 3, 2009 8:57 AM EST
Let's repeal it and put in place all gay units of each of the armed forces. Let them prove their worth by being the first into battle. Barney Franks should be made commander in chief of our all gay troops.

The world would stand in awe. No one would attack us if they knew they had to fight with the mighty gay forces first.
Posted by impeachbhb at 5:32 AM : Mar 3, 2009

This will not happen, the straights would be embarresed
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by rf35 March 3, 2009 8:34 AM EST
As a military member, I can say it doesn't make one bit of difference whether the men serving with me are straight, homosexual, or asexual as long as they can shoot straight. Gay people do not ogle or hit on every member of their gender that they see any more then straight people ogle or hit on every member of the opposite gender they see. Those who are scared of being an object of desire by a homosexual are either incredibly vain or stupendously ignorant.
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