Don't ask don't tell
DADT Repeal May Have Votes May 26, 2010 - 3:31pm
The compromise that has been made by our national organizations to get DADT repeal legislation passed this week looks like it may have the votes in the House and the Senate. Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska has announced his support of the brokered DADT deal.
Just to recap, the DADT deal incorporates the following details:
-Nothing can be enforced until the report from Secretary of Defense Gates is issued on December 1, 2010.
-Repeal will not happen until a letter of approval is signed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of Defense and the President assuring that repeal will not effect combat readiness, morale or cohesion.
-There will be no non-discrimination language forced upon the military. Essentially, the Pentagon could still discriminate against gay and lesbian soldiers because there will be no explicit language saying otherwise, even after repeal.
Well, we pushed the repeal effort up by our collective community actions. The result has been unintended consequeces. Did we want to have a letter of approval that now codifies Gates and Mullen’s approval, in addition to the President? No. Did we want non-discrimination language eliminated that will ensure that discrimination in the military against gays and lesbians will ceasein all forms? No. When this deal is finalized, I am sure many in our community will realize we should have waited and let the President implement his plan, because we will be in a worse place come December when the report is issued.
In the meantime, celebrate that we got a bill passed that has created and codified additional obstacles to the repeal of DADT. We were in a hurry and haste makes waste. Our opportunity with Obama around DADT is wasted because we were so impatient.
Thank you to Stampp Corbin for this amazing article found on http://gltnewsnow.com
Call Congress! Show them we care at: http://bit.ly/bVsGY5
Source: GLT News NowObama to make announcement on Gay Military Ban January 26, 2010 - 12:17am
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jan 25, 2010 19:46:45 EST
The announcement of congressional hearings on the ban on open military service by homosexuals has been delayed at the request of the Obama administration until after Wednesday night’s State of the Union Address because the president may announce that military leaders will support changing the law, according to a key lawmaker.
The Senate Armed Services Committee expects to have a series of hearings, one focusing on the views of military leaders, another on the views of outside witnesses and possibly panels of junior officers and noncommissioned officers, said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the committee chairman.
Levin said Monday that an announcement of the hearings has been delayed at the request of senior Defense Department officials until after President Obama’s speech. Levin said he does not know what Obama might say, but he expects it will be an announcement of the administration’s intentions.
Hearings were supposed to start with military leaders, Levin said, but he might change the order to get hearings underway if senior military officials need more time to prepare.
“I am willing to switch things up,” he said. “I am committed to starting the hearings in February.”
Having junior officers and noncommissioned officers and petty officers testify could be an important step in getting the policy changed, Levin said, especially because he believes there are “generational differences” in views about the presence of gays and lesbians in the ranks. Younger people are more likely to be accepting of a policy change than older people, Levin said.
Although Levin supports repealing the ban and the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that derives from it, Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the House Armed Services Committee chairman, said he wants current restrictions to remain in force and will oppose efforts by the Obama administration to change the law that has existed since 1993.
Source: Air Force Times
