Capitol Hill Rally Calls for Repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t’ Tell

Major M. Witt

According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, since “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was enacted in 1993, more than 12,500 service members have been discharged from the United States military for being gay or lesbian.

Earlier this month Rep. Ellen Tauscher of California re-introduce the Military Readiness Enhancement Act in Congress, bill which would repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell and in a statement released on Thursday, Democratic Rep. Jim Moran said that alone the US Army had discharged 11 soldiers in January for violating DADT among these a highly trained intelligence specialist.

“How many more good soldiers are we willing to lose due to a bad policy that makes us less safe and secure?” asked Moran.

In February, the Kansas City Star reported that Kansas Army National Guard Specialist Amy Brian was severed from the service after a civilian co-worker launched a campaign to out her – a campaign that included anonymous e-mails to her chain of command and claims that Brian had been seen kissing a woman in the check-out line at Wal-Mart.

On Friday opponents of the ban on gay serving openly in the US Military gathered on the blustery grounds of the US Capitol Building to say… What do we want? The freedom to serve! When do we want it? Now.

Speaking to the enthusiastic gathering of about 300 supporters at the Capitol Building yesterday, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) declared: “I’m done asking! And I’m telling!”

“We’re not asking for repeal any longer, we’re telling Congress and President Obama that the time for repeal is now. And this isn’t just about fairness and job discrimination,” Rep. Norton said, “but also the strength of our military”.

Rep. Norton was among the speakers featured at yesterdays rally that included PFLAG’s Col. Dan Tepfer, Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer and Maj. Margaret Witt.

One speaker, Takia Mitchell said she had pretty much served openly as a lesbian for two years in South Korea without a complaint from her commanders, but after less than a year of serving in the closet in a unit in New York, her new commanders forced her out of the Army under the don’t ask, don’t tell rules.

“The Army was my life,” Mitchell said. “It gave me purpose. And at first it gave me a place to thrive. But by the end I was truly an Army of one, singled out because I was gay.”

Every speaker present yesterday made clear that “Don’t ask, don’t tell” is an outdated policy whose time has simply passed and asked why should well-qualified Americans who want to serve their country be denied the opportunity to do so based on their sexual orientation?

With the Capitol Building as her backdrop Decorated Air Force Nurse Maj. Witt said, “For 18 years I served in the military, before the Air Force discharged me because they found out I was a lesbian. But I don’t want to leave, and I’m challenging the government’s attempt to discharge me.”

Maj. Witt is the focus of a court case that will likely force the new administration to take its first official look at the military’s policy prohibiting lesbians, gays, and bisexuals from serving openly. The Department of Defense has until April 3 to decide whether it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a ruling from the ninth circuit court of appeals that said, while the government had previously been able to discharge Gay or Lesbian service members under the policy, because of new protections provided by the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas ruling the court could now require the government to actually prove that an individual’s presence is harming unit cohesion.

Our Pentagon sources tell LGR that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is particularly interested in this case because it would require the DOD to review every case of a service person discharged under DADT on a case-by-case basis and Secretary Gates, our sources tell us, is worried that he will be left with a patchwork quilt of exceptions that will only result in more court cases.

President Obama has many times endorsed a repeal of DADT, so it will be interesting to see just what the administration will do with this court case.

Prominent retired senior military officers and politicians support the repeal or a review of the law, including former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, John Shalikashvili, former Secretary of State and JCS Chairman Colin Powell and former Senator Sam Nunn, who authored the legislation to begin with. Our Pentagon Source has told LGR that during a recent trip to Fort Bragg, North Carolina President Obama discussed in depth with Gates and the current Chairman of theJoint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullens, how to lift the ban.

However this month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi indicated that while the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is a priority, she also said there was no timeline for the bill to be brought the House floor and that the bill will be passed only “when we have the votes.”

Hopefully Friday’s rally helped find some of those votes.

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