America has been at war since I was a freshman in high school. At the time, I was scared to death that one day I would be drafted and sent to fight. Scared out of my mind, I would have gladly done what was needed for my country. Thankfully, brave men and women of all races, religions, and cultures voluntarily answered the call and reported for duty. With America engaged in two wars, why have thousands of soldiers been kicked-out of the military for the same reason?
In 1993, Congress passed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT), a law mandating the discharge of openly gay service members. According to the Service Members Legal Defense Network, more than 14,000 members have been fired under the law since 1994. DADT allows gays and lesbians to serve without asking their sexual orientation, but discharges them if they are discovered to be gay. Many Americans believed this was a great thing for the gay community at the time, but when considering the punishment for being caught, one can see why this law must be repealed. Not only are we firing soldiers based on prejudice, forcing them to change their lives, but we’re hurting the U.S. Armed Services, depleting the military of willing, capable soldiers.
For many reasons, repealing the law is the only thing that comes to mind when I think of DADT. First of all, the law is based on prejudice. It is unconstitutional to deny anyone a job for their sexual preference, so why can’t a gay man or woman fight and die for their country while being able to live their lives as freely as the heterosexual next to them? And what’s not to say some of the best military leaders aren’t gay? I would want to be lead by the best whether they were gay or straight. Lastly, America needs all the soldiers they can get because we’re fighting two wars.
With the growing support of the American public and Congress, it appears as though America is on the right track to repeal this law. By a 234 to 194 vote, The House of Representatives adopted an amendment that could lead to the repeal of DADT as early as 2011. President Obama is onboard and said he will end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. In an Associated Press conference last year, Obama summed up what millions of supporters are thinking, saying, “We should not be punishing patriotic Americans who have stepped forward to serve this country. We should be celebrating their willingness to show such courage and selflessness on behalf of their fellow citizens, especially when we’re fighting two wars.”
After reading the post, Repealing DADT, on Matthew’s Blog I was interested in the arguments people were using to justify this law still being in effect. I myself do not believe that this law should be enforced, and I agree with all of Matthew’s reasons on why it should be repealed. The most interesting thing that I found when researching the arguments for continuing to enforce Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was in an article by Tony Perry,from the LA Times (1) where they report on an interview of General James Amos of the Marine Corps. In the interview, General Amos discusses the “possible loss of unit cohesion and combat readiness if the ban is overturned”. The interesting part came when I read that he himself had recently conducted surveys of troops in Afghanistan on whether or not the Marines felt it would affect the cohesion of the unit. According to the article, “almost unanimously, the young Marines indicated they felt it would”. The reason I found this interesting is because on other websites that I read, the opposite was found to be true.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the National Annenberg Election Survey conducted on October 26, 2004(2)
•50 percent of junior enlist personnel say that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military, up from 16 percent in 1992
•29 percent of military personnel believe open service is an issue of equal rights.
Along with a Survey conducted by Zogby International on December 18, 2006(2) that found:
•73 percent of military personnel are comfortable with lesbians and gays
•23 percent of service members know for sure that someone in their unit is gay, including 21 percent of those in combat units
From the results on these two surveys conducted that actually have numbers to go along with their findings; it appears that support is going up. So I am left wondering if General Amos was lying about his “almost unanimous” response, is he speaking more about his own prejudices than what he actually found to be true, did he even really ask the Marines, or is he truly seeing another side or group that isn’t represented by these polls. With a Pentagon Review ordered by President Obama that is to be completed in December(3), I am very anxious to see what results they show. I know that by now I shouldn’t be shocked by blatant acts of discrimination by our government, but I think it’s the shock that hopefully keeps the discussion and debate alive.
(1)http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dont-ask-20101107,0,5986584.story
(2)http://www.sldn.org/pages/polling-data
(3)http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101012/ap_on_re_us/us_gays_in_military