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Admiral Mullen Believes It Is Time To End Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

02/02/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell may take a year, but the testimony over repealing it has already begun. In the hearing, Admiral Mike Mullen made it quite clear that he is in favor of repealing the law. As he noted, he has served with gay and lesbian service members since 1968. Admiral Mullen and Secretary Robert Gates went before Congress to discuss the implementation of a repeal of DADT. Both are in agreement that it will take at least a year to fully implement a repeal, even if Congress repeals the DADT law this year.

Senator John McCain began the hearing with a letter from around a thousand former generals and admirals calling for the law to remain in place. This letter was referred to repeatedly by the Republicans who are adamant about keeping the law in place. By and large, the Republicans, sans Senator Susan Collins of Maine, tended to mostly attack the idea of leaving the law in place without letting either Mullen or Gates answer any of their assertion. Senator Collins made one of the most effective points by asking about the repeal of bans on gays and lesbians in the military organizations of America’s NATO allies. According to Admiral Mullen, there were few issues reported by America’s NATO allies when they lifted their bans on gays and lesbians serving openly. This theme was brought up by other Senators who asked questions later on.

Senator Clair McCaskill made one of the more effective points in this hearing by asking whether or not the military welcomed the service of gays and lesbians and whether or not there were gays and lesbians currently serving in the military. Admiral Mullen stated that the military did value the service of gays and lesbians serving currently. She then made the point that what DADT amounts to is that we want gays and lesbians serving in the military, but do not want to speak about it. In making this point, she effectively damaged the attempts to derail the repeal based upon the fact that this is not about people serving in the military, but about pushing them to be silent about serving. To a certain degree, her point amounted to a sense of shame that a group of people are serving in the military.

Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen propose to take some time to study the implementation of a repeal of DADT. They want to talk to service members and find out their feelings on this and how the best way to implement a repeal. What both seemed to project is that the repeal will happen and is inevitable. Senator McCaskill also asked the best question regarding the study of the impacts of DADT by going after exactly how the military will ask for information from gay and lesbian service members who are currently in the military. Admiral Mullen admitted that they did not know how that would play out since anyone who came forward about their sexual orientation would then be subject to dismissal under DADT, the very policy that they are giving information about.

By and large, the Democrats are in favor of repealing DADT. This is probably because the upcoming election season is going to be rough and the Democrats will need the support of gays and lesbians in order to achieve victory. The stalling on issues such as DADT lead to a lot of problems in Massachusetts, where liberal Republican Scott Brown was elected. Republicans, playing for the social conservative vote, are against repealing DADT any time soon.

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