Time for Repeal Sooner Rather Than Later
The news is wonderful. We have a new President-elect and with him, the promise of a new administration and change to come. As supporters of SLDN and Veterans of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," we also see the light at the end of a 233-year-old tunnel.
Everyone in our community of organizers and supporters are abuzz with different ideas about how the repeal will happen. We can sense it in the air and the anticipation is killing us with the possibilities.
We once again dare to hope. Some of us have wondered whether we would go back to the service. We've wondered whether our friends still in uniform will feel the relief we longed for at the moment it becomes law... and we wonder whether it's all asking too much too soon.
In the weeks since the election, I've heard more than one commentator predict that President-elect Obama wouldn't be foolish enough to try and repeal the ban right away. After all, that was President Clinton's "first mistake."
Oh my. I think I've missed something here. As I recall, President Clinton agreed to DADT because of a threat by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to resign (were he to outright repeal it by Executive Order.) I also believe that since then, groups like SLDN, American Veterans for Equal Rights and the Michael Palm Center have been working tirelessly to sway public opinion through education, lobbying and public discourse.
To say that passing repeal legislation right away is a mistake... that reeks of the same attitude naysayers had about desegregating schools in America. For some people, it will always be too soon. While I don't believe it will be at the top of the agenda for our new Commander in Chief, I believe that putting repeal off until "the time is right" is inviting an indefinite postponement.
As with any military personnel policy shift, incorporating LGBT service members will take time. It will take planning and it will take courage. If we never repeal the ban, the planning will never take place, and the transition will be put off once again.
Repeal the ban now. Phase it in. Start with medical and legal professionals being required to maintain orientation in confidence. Next, allow commanders and senior enlisted advisors to speak with LGBT service members freely and remove any hint of compulsory requirements for dismissal. Do what has to be done, but don't allow the attitudes of the Clinton era to be mistaken for those of today.
Obama ran and won on a promise of Change - this is the perfect chance to prove it.
12-12-08 By Jeremy Johnson, SLDN Supporter |
2 Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.Nick Kelly in Baraboo, WI on December 20, 2008 at 11.16 pm
Don’t expect too much from the Obama staff on this. They have already raised the ire of gays and lesbians by arranging to have Rick Warran, known homophobe and anti-gay pastor, deliver the Inagural Prayer. So, if this is Obama’s idea of “inclusiveness” I think that service members better not expect an end to DADT any time too soon.
James E. Pietrangelo, II in Vermont on December 12, 2008 at 12.59 pm
Clinton’s mistake was not that he failed to phase in or try to phase in an end to the Military’s ban on Gays, but that he failed to end the ban, period. He could have signed an Executive Order allowing Gays to serve, but, cowardly caving in to the cowardly threats of a few generals that they would quit if they didn’t get their way, he signed DADT instead. Clinton should have showed the whining generals the door and said “We don’t want cowards in the Armed Forces; cowardice and bigotry and not Gay service is what’s bad for morale.”
Equality doesn’t have “phases”; either equality exists or it does not. There is nothing legitimate preventing the immediate and total integration of Gays in the Military. The British did it in one fell swoop. Let me say that again—the British did it in one fell swoop. Integration proved a non-event for them. The US could do it too. It only takes courage.
But courage is exactly what Obama lacks. Gays and those who support Gay rights would do better to demand of Obama an immediate end to DADT than to “talk up” Obama’s position of “consensus” on ending the ban. Not only will the consensus approach not result in the end of DADT, but it will dignify the prejudice of heterosexual service members and civilians as a legitimate concern.