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There's good news and bad news
by Denny Meyer
Since 2005, when the bill to
repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy was first
introduced in Congress by Massachusetts Representative
Marty Meehan, there has been an unending roller coaster
ride of elation and profound disappointment for those
American patriots who believe in the right to serve.
The battle to Lift the Ban on open service has been
going on since the day the law was signed by President
Clinton. The first national organization to be
formed to fight the ban was American Veterans For Equal
Rights AVER (first named Gay Lesbian Bisexual Veterans
of America) composed of actual LGBT veterans who had
served in our armed forces from WWII thru Vietnam, at
that time. Later came SLDN, and nearly two dozen
other service and advocacy groups (many of which are
listed on our
LINKS page.)
Under the prior Presidential administration, the
introduction of the repeal bill was essentially
symbolic; there was no possibility of avoiding a veto
nor even of gaining enough votes in Congress.
In 2005, those
leading the repeal movement were thrilled if we were
able to get mention of our issue in one or two weekly
gay newspapers once every three months or so. The
good news is that now hardly a day passes without major
mainstream media news and commentary on 'Gays in the
Military,' and most of it is positively oriented towards
affirmation. The bad news is that despite the
election of a President who promised to repeal DADT and
a majority in Congress who were swept in with him, the
tail is still wagging the dog. That is, there is
fear and trepidation to tread even a step towards
progress. They gasp and break out in a sweat every
time the very loud but small minority of opponents
shriek hysterical bigoted baloney at the news media.
Do we have to elect the first Black American President
to convince Congress that the American people really are
sick of being told to go broke for bigotry and actually
want progress on equality? But wait, we DID THAT didn't
we!
That was the highest moment of our
elation; the night the President was elected with a
majority in both houses of Congress. It was not
just our movement that sighed and sang "At Last" as the
President Elect and First Lady to be Michelle Obama
danced in triumph before our eyes. It was
not just minorities, nor just Americans; people around
the world shared that moment of incredible hope.
The good news started to roll in
2006 when a Zogby poll indicated that some two thirds of
Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans could care less if
the soldier next to them was gay or straight. In
January of 2007 General Shalikashvili,
a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
announced in The New York Times that he now supported
gay and lesbian service members serving openly in our
armed forces. Eleven months later, twenty eight
retired flag officers (later increased to 100) signed a
statement advocating the repeal of the Don't Ask Don't
Tell policy. And in 2008, Presidential candidate Barack Obama campaigned with a platform that included the
repeal of DADT. In July of 2008 the US House of
Representatives' Military
Personnel Subcommittee held the first Congressional
hearing on DADT since the early 1990s.
Since the start of his second term, in 2009, Congressman
Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania began
spearheading the repeal effort in the House of
Representatives; and Senator Gillibrand of New York has been doing
the same in the Senate where, through her efforts, the
Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing
early in 2010. The latest word is that DADT repeal
will be included in an amendment to the 2011 Defense
Authorization bill next year.
There have been court cases
regarding service members dismissed, due to DADT, that
have progressed beyond being rejected outright in
deference to the military's prerogative. And
several sterling members of our armed forces, such as LT
Dan Choi, have come
out publicly and received significant and positive media
and public attention.
Earlier this year the Secretary of
Defense spoke about exploring more humane ways of
interpreting DADT by, for example, considering not
discharging those who have been outed by others.
Oh, so its ok to serve openly; you only get kicked out
as punishment for speaking the truth about yourself?
There's also been consideration for allowing openly
serving gay personnel in certain critical or selective
jobs. Really? Exactly what stereotyped
positions are we talking about?
Surely we are not talking about intelligence analysts,
cryptologists, or linguists, are we? We can't
possibly be talking about the first American Marine (Eric
Alva) to
be injured in Iraq in 2003, who got his leg blown off in
combat, can we?
The
dark curtain of bigotry has seemed to be slowly rising
on a new day of wise enlightenment.
And yet, every step of the way,
the bitter opposition has screeched bloody murder to the
media. The flag officers' advocacy was countered
with a signed statement by 1000 officers against open
service; although it turned out that some of the signers
were deceased and others had not agreed to participate.
The same old arguments that were told to Truman, when he
integrated Black Americans into our armed forces by
executive order in 1948,
are repeated over and over.
And in response, some members of
Congress hesitate presumably in fear of not getting
reelected. How convenient! If every American
patriotic volunteer hesitated about enlisting or
reenlisting because of what might happen, where would we
be? Today's volunteers know that they will be
deployed to a war zone, there's no maybe about it; and
they know they may be sacrificing their lives. It
takes courage. Today's LGBT volunteers know that they
are sacrificing their freedom to be who they are,
there's no maybe about it; and they know they may suffer
discrimination without being able to do anything about
it; but they volunteer just the same because they are
determined to serve their country. It takes
courage. Members of Congress should be expected to do
nothing less. Courage!
© 2009
Gay Military Signal |
