'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Stonewalling
Paul Tuesday, February 2, 2010 at 03:22PM Obama called for repeal of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy in his State of the Union address last week. He stated, “This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. It’s the right thing to do.”
Many, myself included, took “[t]his year” to mean that a vote on DADT repeal would be pushed for this year. That doesn’t look likely; rather, the stonewalling continues.
The Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Request was submitted just the other day and DADT repeal was not included in it as many had hoped even though the DADT policy has cost the United States between $290 million and $500 million to kick out gay soldiers according to a study released last week by the Williams Institute at UCLA.
On a positive note, the Pentagon is taking their first steps towards repeal and relaxing the current law. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered a 45 day review of the legal aspects of the law, with an eye to ensuring that service members outed by a third party are not discharged. That’s great news and probably should have been implemented a year earlier, but better late than never.
The negative is that the action taken towards actual repeal is simply commissioning a year long review of the law. There have already been enough studies done — at least a dozen according to SLDN. As Aubrey Sarvis, SLDN’s executive director said last year, “Commissioning a study is Washington-speak for kicking the issue down the road because ‘we don’t want to deal with it right now.’” We may not even have the vote in 2011 if Democrats lose control of the House or Senate. The vote on DADT repeal should be taken this year.
Reader Comments (2)
Obama's call is nothing more then political grandstanding, allowing him to say that he finally did something that he promissed during the campaing, but if it dies in the congress, giving him the easy way out to point the blame elsewhere.
I think there has clearly been a significant shift toward repealing this since the SOTU. Between the hearings this week and the statements coming from high ranking and high profile military leadership, I have no doubt this repeal is coming. While I agree generally it may not happen this year, there clearly has been an increase in momentum in Washington to see this happen.
I don't think we should start undercutting this shift just yet by making assumptions there is no chance it will happen. I agree studies have been done time and again, but I'm fine with them taking a year to conduct more if I feel certain this will result in a repeal. I'd rather that happen than have them do it immediately and there be a surge of opposition to what may be perceived as Congress reacting too quickly. The general public is likely unaware of any serious studies that have been done and certainly won't feel the SLDN's views are unbiased on this issue.
I'm hopeful...for once. And while I'd love it to come with a quickness, the suspension of discharges is a huge step in the right direction and effectively implements a halt to Don't Ask Don't Tell in the interim.