The Military is Ready to Lift the Ban on Gay Soldiers. Is Obama?

by Michael Jones · 2009-10-26 11:16:00 UTC
Topics:

U.S. Army

The new United States Secretary of the Army, John McHugh, issued a statement this weekend that said the U.S. Army is ready to lift the ban on gay and lesbian soldiers, a fixture of the U.S. military since the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was put into place in the early 1990s. McHugh said that the predictions of "doom and gloom" that gay soldiers would disrupt the military are unfounded, and insulting to the integrity of the Armed Services.

"Anytime you have a broad-based policy change, there are challenges to that,” McHugh told the Army Times. “The Army has a big history of taking on similar issues, [with] predictions of doom and gloom that did not play out."

McHugh is right. Our U.S. Military is capable of a lot of things, the least of which is being able to serve with perfectly capable soldiers of different sexual orientations. The military can easily handle a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

Of course, the Obama administration is still walking on egg shells with the issue. Several weeks ago President Barack Obama told gay rights activists that he would be the President that overturns "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." But then this weekend, the Log Cabin Republicans (LCR) took a turn for the aggressive against Obama, because his Justice Department is trying to hold up an LCR lawsuit that seeks to overturn "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Is this a White House that's trying to talk out of both sides of its mouth?

Really, what it sounds like is that Obama wants "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" overturned, but on his timeline. And that's the problem -- ending discrimination only fits well into a timeline if you're not the one being victimized by it. Meanwhile, for the tens of thousands of gay soldiers who've been discharged from the military or told they're not good enough to get in, the time is now for an immediate repeal.

(Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army's photostream on Flickr.)

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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