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SF Bay Times: SLDN Advances Campaign for DADT Repeal

By Dennis McMillan
Published: April 29, 2010

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) launched “Stories from the Frontlines: Letters to President Barack Obama,” on April 26. This is a new media campaign to underscore the urgent need for congressional action and presidential leadership at this critical point in the fight to repeal Don’t Ask/ Don’t Tell (DADT), the discriminatory practice against serving openly gay in the military. Every weekday morning as markup of the Defense Authorization bill in the Senate and House Armed Services Committees draws near, SLDN and a coalition of voices supporting repeal, will share an open letter to the President from a person impacted by this discriminatory law.

“We are urging the President to include repeal in the Administration’s defense budget recommendations, but also to voice his support as we work to muster the 15 critical votes needed on the Senate Armed Services Committee to include repeal,” said SLDN Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis. “The Defense Authorization bill represents the best legislative vehicle to bring repeal to the President’s desk. It also was the same vehicle used to pass DADT in 1993. By working together, we can help build momentum to get the votes.” Sarvis elaborated, “By people sharing their personal stories on how this terrible law has impacted them, we can send a powerful message to the President and our own community as we build momentum going into this crucial vote.”

Here follows just the opening paragraph of one of many letters to reach the President’s office as a result of the SLDN campaign. From U.S. Air Force Veteran Mike Almy: “Dear Mr. President, If you end ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ (DADT), I’d re-enlist the day you sign repeal into law. For thirteen years, I served in the United States Air Force where I attained the rank of major before I was discharged under DADT. As the Senate Armed Services Committee considers including repeal in the Defense Authorization bill, we’re very close - just two or three votes - to passing repeal in committee. I ask for you to voice your support to put us over the top.”

“By now, everyone seems to know, that despite Obama’s State of the Union promise to repeal DADT ‘this year,’ it’s not happening,” Sarvis said on AmericaBlog.com. “The President’s team working on the issue, led by Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, has made a calculation that they can take the political hit if the repeal promise hasn’t been kept. But, they’re wrong - unless the Obama operatives want to start the 2012 campaign with a major gay problem on their hands.” He added, “For Messina and his White House colleagues, this is just another political issue. But for the men and women who have been discharged or face discharge, it’s about their lives. All they want to do is serve their country.”

“HRC joins with our allies to urge the President to include repeal in the Administration’s defense budget recommendations, but also to voice his support as we work to muster the 15 critical votes needed on the Senate Armed Services Committee to include repeal,” said Michael Cole, spokesperson for Human Rights Campaign. “The Defense Authorization bill represents the best legislative vehicle to bring repeal to the President’s desk. It also was the same vehicle used to pass DADT in 1993.” He concluded, “By working together, we can help build momentum to get the votes!”

“The President’s political and moral dilemma is how to reconcile the process he worked out with Gates and Mullen...and the commitment he made in the State of the Union message to work with Congress and the Pentagon to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ this year,” said Sarvis.

This is a critical time. SLDN and other coalition voices are urging the President to include repeal in the Administration’s defense budget recommendations, but also to voice his support as activists work to muster the 15 critical votes needed on the Senate Armed Services Committee to include repeal. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees will markup the Defense Authorization bill in a few short weeks. Activists stress that the Defense Authorization bill represents the best legislative vehicle to bringing repeal to the President’s desk.

Senator Mark Udall has told the Denver Post the committee was “within a vote or two” of including repeal in the Defense Authorization bill. Udall is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Representative Jared Polis, who holds a key position on the House Rules Committee, told the Denver Post he is willing to help insert a similar provision in the House version of the Defense Authorization bill with the help of Representative Patrick Murphy, who is the lead sponsor of the House repeal bill.

The House Armed Services Committee markup of the Defense Authorization bill is expected May 19. The Senate Armed Services Committee markup of the Defense Authorization bill is expected the week of May 26. It is expected the House may move the Defense Authorization bill for a floor vote as early as the week of May 24.

But White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs signaled from the podium that the President is not likely to push for repeal this year. According to the Advocate: “President Barack Obama is allowing the Department of Defense to run the course of its investigation as to how to repeal DADT. The Department of Defense’s study is due December 1, suggesting legislative action will likely be ruled out until after the new year.”

The Denver Post reported: “Congressional aides said both approaches are likely to face opposition from the White House, which in February laid a timetable built around an extensive Pentagon study that won’t be completed until Dec. 1, pushing a final move on the contentious issue past what’s expected to be Democrats’ toughest election cycle in years.”

Senator Mark Udall stated, “The Pentagon is studying how to implement an end to ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ and while I agree that is a necessary step, I also believe strongly that we must repeal it this year.”

According to Towleroad.com, talk at Michelangelo Signorile’s LGBT Leadership Town Hall on April 22 focused around getting six senators to move for repeal this year on DADT, and support the addition of the repeal to the Department of Defense Authorization bill that is coming up at the beginning of May: Senators Evan Bayh, D-IN; Scott Brown, R-MA; Robert Byrd, D-WV; Ben Nelson, D- NE; Bill Nelson, D-FL; and Jim Webb, D-VA.

Sources say on May 10-11, hundreds of veterans from across the United States will descend on Washington, DC with one clear message for Congress: “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” needs to go, and it needs to go this year! The National Veterans Lobby Day on DADT will take place immediately before the National Defense Authorization Act – the bill that should contain DADT repeal language – is drafted on Capitol Hill.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning to hold a vote this year in her chamber of Congress for DADT repeal, according to her office. “It is the Speaker’s intention that a vote will be taken this year on [Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell] in the House,” Drew Hammill, a Pelosi spokesperson, told DC Agenda in a statement on April 26. The announcement is promising news for repeal advocates because Pelosi has yet to put legislation to the floor that hasn’t had sufficient support for passage. Michael Cole, a Human Rights Campaign spokesperson, praised Pelosi for planning the vote. “As we’ve been saying for a long time now, the time to repeal the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law is this year, and it’s a positive sign to hear congressional leaders affirm that,” Cole said.

Sarvis said he learned the House was planning this vote last week in a meeting with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. “I’m delighted that she’s reaffirmed to hold the vote this year,” he said. Sarvis said the planned vote is helpful because it “underscores to the White House the seriousness of purpose” and the importance of moving key votes in both the House and Senate the upcoming weeks. “The hour for the President as well as for the leadership to become engaged is now,” he said. “The reality is - particularly in the Senate Armed Services Committee - we are still short of some critical votes. We don’t have the votes today. We’re on the brink of getting them, and we need help from leadership on the Hill and from the President himself.”

In a Facebook live video chat on April 27, pro-equality Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) said, “I have been working on getting the votes we need to repeal. I want to have 60 votes, obviously, to assure the repeal. We still have a few Democrats left to earn support for repeal. There is some question and concern about waiting till the military finishes their study, but I think we can get a vote of repeal before the end of the year, and I think we should be successful.” She added, “So do not lose hope. We have a lot of allies in this fight.”

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