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While the media was lauding President Barack Obama for his accomplishments during his first 100 days in office, there is one promise he has yet to keep. During his campaign, Mr. Obama promised he would get rid of the military’s "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy, which was an attempt to allow gays to serve if they kept quiet about their sexual orientation. Existing policy prohibits a gay person from serving in the military. Not only has Mr. Obama failed to act, but Secretary of Defense Robert Gates recently said the issue would not be dealt with until "… later down the road."
According to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered military personnel, more than 12,500 service members have been discharged from the U.S. military since the policy was signed into law in 1993 and enacted a year later.
The Washington Post reports Pentagon data stating, on average, more than 1,000 service members were discharged each year from ’97 to 2001, but numbers have slowed in the past five to an average below 730.
Apparently, the president has gotten warning signals from the Pentagon the time is not ripe to dispose of one of the nation’s last vestiges of discrimination. Maybe he is reminded of the problems President Bill Clinton ran into when he tried to end discrimination against gays during the early days of his administration. It is true Clinton made a serious miscalculation at that time about the mood of the country and wound up paying a political price for his efforts. But this isn’t ’93 and this is a different country.
Recent polls indicate most Americans either favor ending it or are indifferent. Polling of the military seems to be a mixed bag. But it’s denial of a group’s civil rights. As one gay rights organization declared recently, nobody asked soldiers if it was OK to allow blacks to integrate with them. Nobody polls soldiers on whether we should fight in Iraq or Afghanistan. Why is it when it comes to our gay citizens, their rights must be subjected to the whims of the majority?
National security also dictates the president act immediately to get rid of "don’t ask, don’t tell." A number of our most experienced Arab translators were tossed out of the service simply because of their sexual orientation. Our nation is at war. We can’t afford the luxury of purging gays from an already-depleted military. This policy essentially requires a person to deny his or her true self. It requires everyone who volunteered to serve their country to live a lie. It crushes human dignity. It punishes some of our most devoted and loyal military men and women.
By delaying action, the president is setting himself for a horrific moment when he himself must sign off on firing a member of the military because of their sexual orientation. When it happens, the president will be face-to-face with enforcing discrimination. This is not a decision that can be delayed because as Mr. Obama should know full well, justice delayed is justice denied.
The irony is all around us are signs the country’s attitude toward homosexuality is changing to one of tolerance. It’s apparent it won’t be long before gay marriage is permitted in all of New England. Surely when Iowa removed the marriage barrier it was a sign the supposedly more enlightened centers of sophistication and knowledge in this country are lagging behind. And certainly there is more heat around the gay marriage issue (one the president still hasn’t the courage to endorse) than allowing gay men and women to serve openly in our Armed Forces.
We hear the same, tired arguments about tolerance of gays in the military affecting morale. The arguments are the same ones we heard before President Harry S. Truman integrated the military. Today, our Armed Forces are an area of American life where race matters less. Integration of the military, once so controversial, is by all measures an astounding success. With the exception of Turkey, almost all of our Western allies allow gays to openly serve in their forces.
I realize the president has a lot on his plate right now, but it’s Mr. Obama that has told us his administration is capable of handling multiple problems ("we can walk and chew gum at the same time"). As the nation’s first black president, he knows the pain of discrimination. He understands the need for urgency. He has bragged about keeping his promises.
There is no doubt Mr. Obama, were he to wipe away this policy, would take some heat from the same right-wing bigots, talk show hosts and segments of the religious community that oppose him now. However, his approval rating is more than 60 percent. There is a danger if he waits to act until much later in his administration, he would not be in as strong a position to take action.
There are gay men and women who have risked their lives for this country. For their sake and our own sense of justice, it’s time for the president to end "don’t ask, don’t tell." He can do it with one stroke of a pen. Not later. Now.
