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Obama Briefly Mentions DADT in State of the Union, McCain Calls To Keep Law In Place

01/27/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
President Barack Obama did bring up in his State of the Union Address the issue of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, as promised. The worry that now faced Obama is whether or not he will be able to fulfill his promises. The speech itself was strongly worded and not quite the old Obama of the past. He took on the Republican Party, often making direct mention of the political and financial mess that they created while in power, but also hitting them hard on the fact that they were unwilling to bend in any bipartisan manner.

“But what frustrates the American people is a Washington where every day is Election Day. We cannot wage a perpetual campaign where the only goal is to see who can get the most embarrassing headlines about their opponent – a belief that if you lose, I win. Neither party should delay or obstruct every single bill just because they can. The confirmation of well-qualified public servants should not be held hostage to the pet projects or grudges of a few individual Senators.”

For the LGBT Community, the fact that there has been a tendency to sacrifice the interests and rights of LGBT Americans in order to gain votes from Republicans or to push those rights into other bills in order to get them through Congress has been frustrating. The lack of bipartisanship, especially on issues such as hate crimes legislation and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, has been something that many LGBT Americans have expressed their extreme vexation with.

President Obama pledged to work with Congress and the military to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. It is unclear if there is anything else that may happen with regards to this issue to give both institutions some breathing room in order to hammer out the Military Readiness Enhancement Act. Many LGBT Americans and their allies have called upon Obama to put enforcement of this law into abeyance until it is repealed either by Congress or the courts.

Senator John McCain has already issued a written statement opposing the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

“In his State of the Union address, President Obama asked Congress to repeal the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy. I am immensely proud of, and thankful for, every American who wears the uniform of our country, especially at a time of war, and I believe it would be a mistake to repeal the policy.

“This successful policy has been in effect for over fifteen years, and it is well understood and predominantly supported by our military at all levels. We have the best trained, best equipped, and most professional force in the history of our country, and the men and women in uniform are performing heroically in two wars. At a time when our Armed Forces are fighting and sacrificing on the battlefield, now is not the time to abandon the policy.”

Of course, this is on his election site, and McCain may be playing to the Right in order to stave off a strong challenge to his candidacy from the Tea Party direction of the Republican Party. His opposition to the repeal of DADT clashes and may be directed towards blunting the position that his wife Cindy and daughter Meghan have taken up regarding marriage equality.

Right now, the LGBT Community is very unhappy with Obama, and feel that it is time for him to work on getting issues related to their rights addressed in a big way. While many are willing to understand that repealing the Defense of Marriage Act is difficult, there has been a lot of push back regarding his unwillingness to address DADT before now.

Addendum: “The time for broad statements is over. The time to get down to business is overdue. We wish we had heard him speak of concrete steps tonight,” Rea Carey of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force stated after the speech, and went further to state that Obama should be announcing a moratorium for dismissals under the policy.

Nathaniel Frank, a fellow at the Palm Center stated “President Obama has the opportunity to modify the gay ban’s application through executive action.”