Rep. Nancy Pelosi Claims "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Will Be Gone By the End of the Year

by Allison Hope · 2010-10-01 15:17:00 UTC
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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was the guest of honor at the 10th Annual Victory Fund's Gay & Lesbian Leadership Awards on Wednesday, where she stated that 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' will be gone by the end of the year.

"It will just be a sad memory," she said.

Quite the bold statement given the recent ruling and the failure of the U.S. Senate to successfully repeal the outmoded and discriminatory rule. Pelosi followed with an even more vague explanation that, "some are here tonight who served in our military. ... Because of the courage of some of them, this will be gone by the end of the year."

Am I the only one getting déjà vu here?

In an interview with The Hill back in May she said, "I don’t have any doubt that ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ will be a memory by the end of this year.”

Will someone please press the reset button on Pelosi? It seems she's stuck on a feedback loop. Or maybe we should remind her of what she said back in February when she, again vaguely, told the public that she may wait until after midterm elections to roll out a vote on "Don' t Ask, Don't Tell."

“Whatever it is, we’re moving forward on it,” Pelosi said. “And if that means sooner or later with legislation, we’ll just do what’s best for protecting Americans who want to serve our country and to end discrimination against all.”

Intentions are one thing; politicking is another. When it comes to intentions, Pelosi's heart may be in the right place, but when it comes to politics, the message being sent does not come across as one of brave leadership vis-a-vis the lens of equal rights for all citizens (including those that fund the campaigns and all of us who fund their salaries with our tax dollars).

Robin McGehee, Co-Director of Get Equal, the organization leading the protests against Pelosi's lack of movement on ending the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), told Metro Weekly that, "Leadership is about doing the right thing, not the politically safe thing."

Let's go Congress - do the right thing!

Photo credit: Speaker Pelosi

Allison Hope is a writer and multimedia artist living in New York City.
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