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Loading ...Supporters of gays in military urge Obama to move quickly
02.04.2009 2:07pm EST
(Washington) Supporters of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” are calling on President Obama to stop dragging his feet in ending the ban on gays serving openly in the military.
The President has said that he supports repeal of the ban, but reports indicate he has called for a study that could take up to a year to determine the effect of allowing gays to serve.“Let’s be clear: A commission or a study group is not about change. That’s business as usual. We do not need another report to tell us what we already know and what earlier reports have long since concluded: the sexual orientation of a service member is irrelevant. What is relevant is how well he or she does the job,” said Aubrey Sarvis, the Executive Director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network on the SLDN Blog.
A retired Brigadier General for the U.S. Marine Corps who already has studied the effect of ending DADT agrees.
“There’s been enough studying throughout the years,” said General Hugh Aitken. “Creating a new study will not change the facts.”
Aitken participated in a comprehensive 2008 review of the policy which found that there is no evidence showing that openly gay service would harm the military, and a great deal of evidence showing it would not.
Scholars at the Palm Center – a research institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara also say there is no need for an additional study.
Dr. Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at the Palm Center and author of the forthcoming book Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America said he has reviewed “all of the evidence on gays in the military, and there is simply no question about whether or not a policy change would undermine unit cohesion. It would not.”
Dr. Laura Miller, a well-known military sociologist who co-authored a study on gays in the military with the late Charles Moskos, author of the gay ban, said, “you don’t need a commission to tell you that you need to retain every able, trained, experienced and productive member at a time when both the stakes and the manpower needs are high.”
“Extensive scholarly research already shows that allowing the 65,000 gays and lesbians currently in uniform to serve openly will not harm the military in any way,” said Dr. Gary Gates, a UCLA scholar who has authored a number of studies on gays in the military.
The Palm Center scholars cited research that includes an extensive 1993 study by the RAND corporation as well as two official military studies: a 1989 study by the Defense Personnel Security Research Center and the Navy’s 1957 Crittenden report.
It also includes numerous academic studies published in leading military journals such as International Security, Armed Forces and Society, and Parameters, the official journal of the U.S. Army War College. Most recently, a bi-partisan panel of retired flag officers, which included General Aitken, released a report last year which found that “don’t ask, don’t tell” was unnecessary and harmful to the military. All these studies reached the same conclusion: that allowing open gay service would not undermine the military.
Since DADT was enacted, more than 12,000 servicemembers have been dismissed when it was learned they are gay. According to statistics from the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network which advocates for gays in the military, an average of two service members are dismissed under the law every day.
Legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” the ban on gays serving openly in the military was taken up in committee last year for the first time, but did not make it to a vote.
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D) has reportedly been working on a new version of the bill to be filed this year but wants a Republican to cosponsor it.
Let us serve openly. This not only impacts mental health but limits the time a gay person will spend in the military. If they do not get kicked out, there is only so much time a person can be alone and reject love from others. I have over a decade in service and will not consider signing on for more time if the American people don’t start fighting for me as I have fought for them.
More inaction on the part of Obama? It is quite clear that no amount of additional studies are needed and they will not change what is already known. This is a delaying tactic at best.
This issue has always baffled me a bit because while I respect and appreciate my gay bro/sis who do serve or want to server – quite frankly, I kind of like the fact that they can’t ship us off to war. Let the Heteros take the bullet when in the USA, we are still 2nd, 3rd, maybe even 4th class citizens. On the other hand, as Soldier stated, this keeps our people in the closet who do desire to server. Hence – I am torn. I support the right of every single person to choose their own path, this should be no different. I just hate the idea of a single member of our gay community not coming back.
Another study? It sounds to me that it is nothing more than another excuse. After openly gay service members have been discharged for being gay and also speak Arabic, a VERY HIGH demand language, they already know that DADT exists for one and only one reason: HOMOPHOBIA.
Another study= finely spun homophobia. No excuse that continues this unjust and unethical policy is acceptable, and every second it persists is disgraces all who serve and the country that permits it to continue. There was never any justification for this ban other than appeasement of religious bigots and moronic homophobes of which the military is chock full. And it’s a fool who blames Clinton exclusively for this problem–the timing, anyway.
Why do we need gays in the military if the annoited One is cutting military expenditures by 10%? I’m not interested in reliving Germany in the 1930’s. What guarantees does the general populace have that another neurotic (LGBT) individual will not seek ultimate power and oppress its dissenters? Those that forget history are doomed to repeat it.
^crackpot^
I used to be in the Army and i had a friend who left because of the hurtful things that were said about how horrible being gay was. She wanted to leave, but if dadt will be repealed it means that we will have more of a united military rather than a bigoted military. we need soldiers. we need this equality so the U.S. doesnt look like we are contradicting ourselves from saying everyone is created equal but youre not allowed to serve your country.
I don’t think it is about serving as much ti is that if we serve we will want the same rights and protections that our fellow soliders get for their families. If we are equal enough to serve we are equal enough for the same bennies. It could be a major step in equal everything and God/Goddess knows we can’t have that. There is no real argument for keeping us out except it could give us better footing for other issues. We don’t have a draft because they would have to pass the Equal Rights Ammendment and that is not going to happen either. It is a much bigger picture than more bodies.
Let us put the shoe on the other foot. It is well known that the LGBT community includes many men and women with considerable artistic and literary talent. If we took the position that we should be exempt from military service because of our gifts and talents, would those social and religious conservatives who oppose ending the ban on LGBT serving in military services support our position. I really doubt it.
Here in Canada and in the United Kingdom, two key allies of the United States, the ban on Lesbians and Gay men was lifted long ago. Guess what? Lesbian and Gay male soldiers serve our countries with the same distinction as their heterosexual comrades in uniform. (Of course, we do have a few social conservatives and Conservative Party members here who want the ban restored.)
If anyone, heterosexual or homosexual is engaged in sexual misconduct in uniform, then he or she MUST be disciplined for misconduct. However, if military services are going to ban all LGBT persons because there is a risk for sexual misconduct, then the fact that there has been sexual misconduct by heterosexual service personnel means that all heterosexuals should also be banned. What will this leave us for our military services? Only those who consent to be spayed and neutered.
As for “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell”, that is a policy that rewards lying and deception. Why should lying and dishonesty rewarded? Do social conservatives really believe lying is okay in order to keep a strong military? Clearly it is not LGBT people whose morals are in question here.
It is interesting that while many heterosexual men claimed to be Gay to avoid the draft in the 1960s, many Gay men hid that fact because they believe they had a responsibility of citizenship to give military service to the the United States. Demanding the end of a ban on LGBT people in the military is not seeking special or even equal rights. It is volunteering for equal responsibility.
Please Brothers and Sisters!
Saint Obama is to busy going from news show to news show to be bothered with all the silly gay folk!
Change You Can’t Believe In!
did I miss the hyperlink to the President’s office?????
Wow, RJLigier is quite the persistent troll.
Two essential points to consider: First, Obama has been president for about two weeks. He hasn’t even managed to successfully fill his Cabinet yet. Secondly, we’ve already been through this before. Clinton tried right at the beginning of his Presidency, failed and we ended up with DADT. Since Obama has not even gotten his Cabinet filled, to say nothing of his initial economic recovery bills through Congress, it’s highly unrealistic to expect him to allow himself to get bogged down in an argument with the GOP over this. Unless we want a repeat of Clinton a little more common sense will be necessary.
RJLigier,
Every modern Western democracy has gays in the military from Israel, to Scandinavia, to likely Iceland, to Germany, to UK, to Canada. These are truly 21st century countries in how they treat their gay citizenry. These countries are fine with that, gays are part of their societies and gladly contribute to the cultures and countries they live in. The antigay policy in the USA military is losing ground amongst the retired top military brass and more and more of the military is getting used to the gays being there as they are finding out that gay military personel do as good a job as their straight counterpart.