Thoughts from Aubrey Sarvis
An excerpt of comments made by SLDN executive director Aubrey Sarvis at today's National Press Club news briefing with Sergeant Darren Manzella.
In our policy work in Washington, and with our military service clients like Sergeant Manzella, SLDN is witnessing a clear and undeniable shift in attitudes regarding “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the issue of open and honest service in our military. Today, we have polls indicating overwhelming public support for repeal; we also have stories like Sergeant Manzella’s, which demonstrate that, within the military, troops and commands are increasingly welcoming and supporting their gay colleagues. In fact, SLDN is aware of more than 500 troops who are serving openly today, either to their commands, fellow troops or, in some cases, both. Yes, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” is arbitrarily enforced, even more so now that we are at war.
Darren, who came out on national television December 16 and yet continues on active duty today, is a perfect example of why this law doesn’t work and isn’t needed.
First, commands do not want to discharge qualified troops simply because they are gay. As the experience of Darren and those other 500 troops’ shows, qualification should – and often does – trump sexual orientation on the list of commands’ priorities. It is simply counterproductive and costly to dismiss good medics like Sergeant Manzella, trained linguists, doctors, pilots and other critical personnel who help get the job done every day.
Secondly, Sergeant Manzella received tremendous support from his fellow troops after he initially came out to many of them 16 months ago. Zogby tells us that most troops don’t care about the sexual orientation of the people they serve with, and the military, reflecting, civilian society, is increasingly more familiar with, and accepting of, lesbian and gay Americans.
And finally, it is time to give commands the opportunity to officially retain gay troops and to end the unnecessary arbitrary enforcement of the congressional gay ban. With no evidence to support tired, old arguments about unit cohesion, social experimentation, and troop morale and with plenty of fresh evidence pointing to a more welcoming environment in a military that needs more good people, everyone in our armed forces should be treated the same. Commands should BE FREE TO judge all their troops based on how well they do their job and not on who they are. There is mounting evidence that more commands are doing just that. Now, the law should mirror the reality and lead of those commands, and lawmakers should repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” This is a fight for equality and fairness for ALL. ALL.
And if this is indeed the season of change, we say to Congress let that change begin with the repeal of this discriminatory and unfair law. Darren’s story illustrates exactly why change is needed. A trained, highly qualified medic, Sergeant Manzella served with distinction in Iraq and in Kuwait, from where he just returned a few days before Christmas.
Darren joined the Army in 2002 and was assigned to Fort Hood, Texas, where he was lead instructor and coordinator for the Combat Lifesaver program, which trains non-medical soldiers in emergency first aid procedures to assist the medical team in combat situations. In March 2004, he deployed to Iraq, where he provided medical coverage during more than one hundred 12-hour duty assignments on the streets of Baghdad. While under fire, Manzella provided continuous medical care to his fellow soldiers, Iraqi National Guardsmen and Iraqi civilians. His extraordinary care during an attack in Iraq earned him the Combat Medical Badge, and he is also the recipient of several other awards recognizing his courage and duty to service in the warzone.
Photo by Judy G. Rolfe for SLDNLabels: aubrey sarvis, Darren Manzella, sldn clients
-----01-08-08
Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.