A Majority of Conservatives Want "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Eliminated

by Michael Jones · 2009-08-18 17:02:00 UTC
Topics:

Don't Ask Don't Tell

Despite the fact that all of the GOP's candidates for President last year supported keeping "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in place, the majority of conservatives favor a repeal of the discriminatory military policy.  And that's both a good thing for LGBT rights, and for U.S. national security.

Regularly, the debate over whether to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is framed in terms of Democrat vs. Republican, or left vs. right.  As Kevin Nix over at New Majority writes, that's the wrong way to frame this debate.

"The debate over “don’t ask / don’t tell” in the military is often presented as a battle between liberals and conservatives. That’s not correct – and not fair to conservatives," Nix writes.  He points out that many conservatives are just as upset as liberals at watching qualified gay or lesbian linguists being thrown out of the military at a time when the military needs people with superior linguistic skills.  Or how conservatives are just as angry at seeing a decorated Gulf War F-15 aviator recently served discharge papers after 18 years in the military, simply because of sexual orientation.

And the poll numbers are there to back this up, too.  In May 2009, Gallup released a poll that showed 58 percent of Republicans itching to do away with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."  Among those Republicans includes Florida's Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who as recently as last week said that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ruins the lives of gays and lesbians who sacrifice their own lives for their country.

"We've wasted a great deal of time and effort trying to enforce this failed policy," said Rep. Ros-Lehtinen.  "At a time when our armed forces are under unprecedented strain, we should welcome all those, regardless of sexual orientation, who ask nothing more than to serve their country."

Yup, right or left, Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative...doesn't matter.  The majority of folks on all sides think that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is failed policy.

Now we just need action.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Bea Arthur's Lasting Gift to Fight LGBT Homelessness
NEXT STORY:
On Aeroflot's Birthday, Russian Activists Condemn Company's Anti-Gay Record. And You Can Help.

COMMENTS (6)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.