Take Away from LGBT White House Reception
June 29 in the East Room of the White House was the first time we heard the President address DADT in such detail. That was a good and encouraging thing. One of our clients, Lt. Col. Fehrenbach, embraced what he heard the President say. "I explained [to the President] that I'm being thrown out as we speak, and that there was a sense of urgency for me," Fehrenbach told the New York Times. "He looked me in the eye and he said, ‘We're going to get this done.'"
Words can be helpful, but now gay and lesbian service members are looking for some concrete action, and today we heard more encouraging news from DOD Secretary Gates who said that he talked with the President last week about "how to achieve his objective, which is changing the policy." The President could also publicly endorse HR 1283 (Military Readiness Enhancement Act) or present his own repeal legislation to Congress. Lawmakers are waiting for his proposal for how and when to get rid of DADT.
06-30-09 By Paul DeMiglio, Senior Communications Manager |
6 Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.James E Pietrangelo, II in Cleveland, OH on July 01, 2009 at 09.52 am
Michael: Don’t be embarrassed, you were spot on about the ridiculousness of Gates’/the Obama Administration’s new position. You are entirely correct that their position is specious. Not only have they always possessed the power to stop enforcing DADT under stop-loss authority, but they have always possessed it under DADT itself, specifically, Section 654b, which allows the SecDef to determine the way in which DADT is enforced. Indeed, the Military has long retained known Gay soldiers when it suited the Military. This latest announcement is more political B.S. Period. As for LTC Fehrenbach, he should sue in the Ninth Circuit, because Gays have been successful there in the past in similar retirement circumstances where judges have viewed the issue as a property issue (ie. loss of pension) rather than a civil rights issue.
Military Times on June 30, 2009 at 10.50 pm
Gates wants to soften gay expulsion rules
By Anne Gearan - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jun 30, 2009 21:39:03 EDT
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday he wants to make the law prohibiting gays from serving openly in the armed forces “more humane” until Congress eventually repeals it. He said he has lawyers studying ways the law might be selectively enforced.
“One of the things we’re looking at is, is there flexibility in how we apply this law?” Gates said.
The defense chief, a holdover from the Republican administration of former President George W. Bush, told reporters traveling with him in Europe that the Clinton-era ban was written without much wiggle room. The Pentagon general counsel is looking at potential avenues around full enforcement as a stopgap, Gates said.
For example, Gates said, the military might not have to expel someone whose sexual orientation was revealed by a third party out of vindictiveness or suspect motives. That would include, Gates said, someone who was “jilted” by the gay service member.
“That’s the kind of thing we’re looking at to see if there’s at least a more humane way to apply the law until the law gets changed,” Gates said, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon.
Gay rights activists and others have criticized the Obama administration for not quickly following through on a pledge to lift the ban on openly gay military service.
President Barack Obama and his spokesmen say he remains committed to repealing the Clinton-era law known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” but neither the White House nor congressional leadership has moved swiftly to do so.
There is no timetable for the pending bill to repeal the 1993 law, which was intended as a compromise to get around a full ban on gay military service. Gay rights leaders, however, have said it is an insult.
Obama says he wants to build support for the change among military commanders before urging Congress to move ahead.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff and others have cautioned that repeal of the law must be done carefully so as not to disrupt military cohesion in wartime or to place an additional burden on an already overstretched uniformed force.
Gates said he discussed repeal of the no-gays policy with Obama last week, but he did not detail the conversation.
“We were talking about how do we move forward on this to achieve his objective, which is changing the policy, and the issue that we face is that how do we begin to do preparations and simultaneously the administration move forward in terms of asking the Congress to change the law,” Gates said.
Several liberal legal experts and outside groups have urged Obama to issue an executive order that would make the law unenforceable, but Gates appeared to be considering measures short of that.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com on June 30, 2009 at 09.08 pm
I stand corrected [and embarrassed] after having the conjunction “and” pointed out to me in DADT Section (e).
The discretionary override only applies when retention is determined to be in the best interest of the armed services AND the “member engaged in conduct or made statements for the purpose of avoiding or terminating military service.”
That leaves the question of why Gates and Obama are ignoring entirely the discretionary power behind the concept of “credible evidence” and the fully legal stop-loss authority under 10 United States Code 12305 [and Bush Executive Order #13223 and prior Pentagon policy such as “Any administrative procedure is dependent on operational considerations of the unit that would administer such proceedings.”] IF Obama genuinely believes as he’s said repeatedly that DADT is morally wrong, and reiterated yesterday:
“I believe preventing patriotic Americans from serving their country weakens our national security.”
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com on June 30, 2009 at 08.01 pm
Gates may be many things, but he’s no dummy. Yet, note the ignorance he’s displaying in the following report of comments he made today:
“One of the things we’re looking at is, is there flexibility in how we apply this law,” Gates told reporters aboard a military plane.
The Pentagon boss said he discussed the issue last week with US President Barack Obama and that there also has been discussion among senior military and legal counsel about possible changes in how they apply the law, which he described as “very restrictive.”
“We’re talking about how do we move forward on this, achieve this objective which is changing the policy.”
Gates added: “What I discovered when I got into it was it’s a very restrictive law. It doesn’t leave much to the imagination, or a lot of flexibility.”
The defense secretary said one possible modification might be consider the circumstances under which a service member is “outed” in determining whether or not he or she must leave the military.
Gates offered as an example “when we’re given information from someone with vengeance in mind or blackmail, somebody who has been jilted.
“If somebody is outed by a third party, does that force us to take action?” he said.
“That’s the kind of thing we’re looking at—seeing if there’s a more humane way to apply the law until it gets changed.” END QUOTE.
Such abysmal ignorance about DADT from the Secretary of Defense reveals two disturbing things:
1. He’s never cared enough about DADT before to actually understand how it works;
2. That he’s gone from “kick it down the road” to “doing something humane” in four months while embarrassing himself by revealing his inexcusable ignorance about it proves that we have them on the run to DO SOMETHING FAST.
It sounds like they specifically have the case of Lt. Col. Fehrenbach in mind because, as most reading here know, he was deep in the military closet for 18 yrs. until someone outed him
BUT if this is a step in the right direction it’s being made with a club foot.
Not a lot of “flexibility,” Mr. Secretary???He should ALREADY ENTIRELY understand that the choice of investigating anyone whom someone else has accused of being gay is ALREADY ENTIRELY up to the servicemember’s commander.
The term is “credible evidence.” If the commander says it isn’t, CASE CLOSED!!!!
Further, the law provides under Section (e) (2) of 10 USC 654 - “Policy Concerning Homosexuality in the Armed Forces”:
“Rule of Construction. Nothing in subsection (b) shall be construed to REQUIRE that a member of the armed forces be processed for separation from the armed forces when a determination is made in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Defense that
... (2) separation of the member WOULD NOT BE IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE ARMED FORCES.”
That section fits both Dan Choi and Victor Fehrenbach perfectly.
So, on top of no explanation of why they are still ignoring 10 United States Code 12305 which Congress passed in 1983 to empower the President to “suspend ANY provision of law relating to promotion, retirement, or separation applicable to ANY member of the armed forces who the President determines is essential to the national security of the United States,” on top of ignoring the history of stop-loss of gays whenever they’ve needed bodies going all the way back to World War II, there’s already another, existing legal means to salvage Choi and Fehrenbach staring the Commander-in-Chief, the Secretary of Defense, and “senior military and legal counsel” in the face.
And some wonder why their sincerity continues to be questioned.
T2inDC on June 30, 2009 at 07.23 pm
disappointing news.
1LT Dan Choi’s board recommended discharge today.
James E. Pietrangelo, II in Cleveland, OH on June 30, 2009 at 06.08 pm
Kudos to SLDN for their participation in last week’s protest of the LGBT DNC fundraiser.
On a different note, I find it absolutely incredible that all of these Gay folks—who before President Obama’s Pride event were fed up with being told to wait by Obama—are now after the event buoyed and happy with Obama’s words (again, no action) that he’s for us and that by the end of his term we’ll be happy with him. Did I miss something, or was the Gay community just suckered again? There’s that old saying, “Fool me once, that’s on you; fool me twice, that’s on me.” When will the Gay community wake up? Obama should have recognized Gay equality six months ago. It was shameful that Obama had the nerve to even say anything to LTC Fehrenbach, the very man whose livelihood he is about to destroy based on discrimination. Bigot Obama strikes again!