Congress on verge of eradicating anti-GLBT policy from the military
By DMITRY RASHNITSOV
Petty Officer Larry Whitt of Fort Lauderdale traveled to Washington DC two months ago and got arrested after chaining himself to the White House. Now Officer Whitt and the thousands of other United States military personnel who have been fighting the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy know their work has not been in vain. By a 234-194 vote last week, The United States House of Representatives approved an amendment to repeal the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. Miami representative Ileana Ros Lehtinen was one of the few republicans to vote for the repeal.The Senate Armed Service Committee, by a 16-12, approved a similar amendment repealing DADT. Florida Senator Bill Nelson did vote for the repeal in the committee. The full Senate must still vote on the measure, expected sometime this week.
If the amendment is passed in the Senate, the actual repeal would take place 60 days after a Pentagon report about the affects of letting gays and lesbians serve openly is completed. The report is due by December 1.
“I am pleased that both the House of Representatives and the Senate Armed Services Committee took important bipartisan steps toward repeal tonight… Our military is made up of the best and bravest men and women in our nation, and my greatest honor is leading them as Commander-in-Chief. This legislation will help make our Armed Forces even stronger and more inclusive by allowing gay and lesbian soldiers to serve honestly and with integrity,” President Obama said in a statement after making it a campaign pledge of his to repeal the ban.
The American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER) and other LGBT groups are not exactly jumping in the air in excitement about having to wait for the actual repeal to happen after the December 1 report is returned, but they are pleased that this step towards LGBT equality was a long time coming.
“AVER is cautiously optimistic that the actions taken by Congress this week towards repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will eventually accomplish an end to discrimination against gay and lesbian service members and halt the discharge of trained military professionals who possess critical skills necessary for our nation’s defense against terrorist attack,” said AVER National President Danny Ingram. “The bottom line of this week’s actions, however, is that today openly gay and lesbian troops are still being discharged from the military, which means that critical support services are still being denied to troops on the battlefield. And crucial members of America’s intelligence operations, including highly trained military linguists, are still being ejected from service.”
Support for the repeal among the general U.S. population is the strongest it has ever been. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey taken last week announced that 78 percent of the public favor allowing openly gay people to serve in the military.
Still, some right wing Christian groups are vehemently fighting to keep the ban intact.
According to a research paper published by the Family Research Council, an anti-GLBT group, “The military already has a serious problem with sexual assault by homosexuals. If the current law against homosexuality in the military is overturned, the problem of same-sex sexual assault in the military is sure to increase. If the law is overturned and open homosexuals are welcomed into the military, the number of homosexuals in the armed forces can only increase-leading to a corresponding increase in same-sex sexual assaults.”
The Family Research Council findings conclude that. “Allowing open homosexuality in the military would do nothing to enhance the readiness or effectiveness of our armed forces. On the contrary, it would clearly damage them-in part because it would increase the already serious problem of homosexual assault in the military.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid believes he has the 60 votes needed to get the legislation passed as part of the annual Pentagon budget.
