Military Analyst Believes Resistance to Allowing Gays Serve Openly in the Military is Weakening

by Michael Jones · 2008-12-08 04:30:00 UTC
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Don't Ask Don't TellThere's open debate about whether President-Elect Barack Obama will take on the issue of repealing the U.S. Military's "Dont' Ask, Don't Tell" policy toward gay and lesbian Americans within his first few months in office...or even his first term.  The traditional media continues to make the comparison to President Bill Clinton's first 100 days, when he took on the issue of gays in the military and received quite a bit of pushback in Congress and among the military.

But the times have changed, and that's a bad comparison to make.

Case in point, support within the military for overturning "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has likely never been higher.  Today, MIlitary Analyst Lawrence Korb (a former Assistant Secretary of Defense) said that "attitudes have changed dramatically [within the military] since Clinton" tried to end the U.S. military's discriminatory policy toward gays and lesbians.  

The other half of this is public opinion on the issue.  It's also changed dramatically, to steal the phrase that Korb used.  According to ABC News/Washington Post, here's a question that was posed to Americans: Do you think that homosexuals who do publicly disclose their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the military or not?  

In 1993, only 44 percent of the population said yes.  In July 2008, 75 percent said yes.

SEVENTY-FIVE percent of Americans think that it's time to integrate gays and lesbians into the U.S. military.

Simply put, this is no longer a wedge issue.  It's not a risk for President-Elect Barack Obama to end the ban on service for gays and lesbians.  LGBT rights activists should hold the President-Elect to his campaign promise to end the ban, if not within his first few hundred days, certainly within his first term.  

Anything less would be caving in to the faulty talking point that says this issue is dangerous to touch.  Given the data on where Americans stand, that's simply not true.

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.
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