A Worthy Repeal Campaign

MILITARY

Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- after 1,260 days in office in which more than 2,000 people have been discharged under Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) -- belatedly issued more lenient guidelines for enforcing the policy that prohibits gays and lesbians from openly serving in the military. The new rules are meant to keep the law from being used "to launch witch hunts or settle grudges" before Congress acts to repeal it and "represent the first significant step by the administration to address what [President] Obama calls an injustice." Though they do not represent a full repeal, Gates described the new guidelines as ''an important improvement in the way the law is put into practice." The changes give "a greater measure of common sense and common decency for handling what are complex and difficult issues for all involved," he said. But Gates also stressed that Congress should not repeal the policy before the Pentagon finishes its year-long review of the law. "There is a great deal we don't know about this, in terms of the views of our servicemembers, in terms of the views of their families and influences," Gates said. "There is a lot we'd have to address in terms of what would be required in the way of changed regulations in terms of benefits. There are a lot of unanswered questions in terms of the implementation of this." The new guidelines are a critical first step in making sure every man and woman with the ability and willingness to serve is allowed to do so, but they are no substitute for full legislative repeal of DADT. That repeal should happen sooner rather than later. The Senate has introduced legislation that would repeal the law in 270 days and require the military to develop a clear implementation strategy. As Center for American Progress studies haven shown, linking congressional repeal with Pentagon implementation makes strong strategic sense because it will ensure that the transition to open service will be smooth, orderly, and fully consistent with the rigors of military service and unit readiness.

NEW DADT GUIDELINES:  

The new DADT guidelines, which apply to all pending and future discharge cases, effectively limit enforcement of DADT to those cases where a servicemember actively outs himself or herself. The discharge of enlisted personnel must now be approved by higher-ranked officers. Information provided by third parties must be given under oath and the use of hearsay will be discouraged. The new rules also redefine what constitutes a reliable person, with special scrutiny on third parties that may be motivated to harm the accused servicemember, and stipulate that certain confidential information obtained from lawyers, clergy, doctors, and security clearances cannot be used to begin a separation. The changes "constitute a solid first step to help reign in many of the abuses of the policy that have become common practice over the past seventeen years," said Alexander Nicholson, a former U.S. Army interrogator who was discharged under DADT and the current Executive Director of Servicemembers United, the nation's largest organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans. "These changes are by no means a substitute for full legislative repeal of the law this year, but they are certainly a good start," he said. But not everyone agrees. Iraq war vet Lt. Dan Choi, who is currently in the process of being discharged from the military after coming out as gay on the Rachel Maddow Show, says Gates' new rules don't go far enough. "The reason why 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is so repugnant is because it forces people to be in the closet and lie, and that hasn't changed," Choi said. "The real price of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is that it institutionalizes shame."

IMPLEMENTING A FULL REPEAL: Many have argued that Congress should move swiftly to repeal the DADT law, without waiting for the Pentagon to complete its review and have also questioned why the review needs to take a full year. Last Tuesday, the Center for American Progress released a report noting that any repeal "of Don't Ask, Don't Tell [must] not be perceived as a complicated puzzle requiring complex solutions to minor problems." The Pentagon's review "must focus on how to implement the change rather than whether or not to do so," CAP's Lawrence Korb, Sean Duggan, and Laura Conley write. "But as this study and the experiences of some of our closest allies will demonstrate, once the law is repealed there are a number of fairly limited and manageable administrative, bureaucratic, and legal changes that must be made to the military's internal regulations dealing with benefits, housing, conduct, and other relevant topics. Most existing regulations are already neutral with respect to sexual orientation and therefore don't need to be modified. Others will require minor changes in legislation or additional executive guidance." The report reviews the experiences of Great Britain, Canada, and Israel and notes eight areas where "the military must change rules and regulations in order to effectively implement the new policy." For example, the Department of Defense should make sexual orientation part of existing servicewide nondiscrimination training programs, allow previously discharged service members the opportunity to re-enlist and "signal clearly that the military will not segregate housing, showering, and other common-use facilities based on sexual orientation," the report says. Korb, Duggan, and Conley conclude that repeal can be implemented in less than a year.

RESISTANCE TO CHANGE: On the same day Gates announced the new rules for enforcing DADT, General James Conway -- Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps -- reiterated his opposition to repealing the policy and told Military.com he will insist that the Marines have the option of not living alongside gay servicemembers. "We just think that our corps will not want to see it changed. If it is changed, it's going to require some leadership, engaging, to ensure our order are carried out. It's going to require some resources. Because right now we billet by twos. We're the only service that billets by twos. We like that, we want to continue doing that. But I would not ask our Marines to live with someone who is homosexual, if we could possibly avoid it. And to me, it means we have to build BEQs [Bachelor/Base Enlisted Quarters] that have single rooms," Conway said. "I would, in this case, want to preserve the right of a Marine who thinks he or she wouldn't want to do that. Okay?" Should his request be granted, the United States will become the only nation (of the 25 that have dropped the ban) that segregates its servicemembers on the basis of sexual orientation. As CAP's report points out, "the militaries of Great Britain, Canada, and Israel amply demonstrate that lifting the ban on openly gay service will not require the U.S. military to provide separate housing, shower, or other common-use facilities for gay and lesbian service members." In fact, even General Carl Mundy, commandant of the Marine Corps from 1991 to 1995 and an opponent of repeal, has predicted that segregating the forces "would be absolutely disastrous. ... It would destroy any sense of cohesion or teamwork or good order and discipline."

There is nothing civil about civil wars!