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Majority Of Public Support DADT Repeal, More Senators Support Military’s Review

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on February 10, 2010.

02/10/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell may be gaining steam as more moderate Senators are beginning to indicate their support for repeal, or at least for the full review of the policy and how it could be repealed. This is also in line with a recent Quinnipiac University poll showing that currently 57% of the nation supports repeal of the law, 36% oppose repeal and seven percent are undecided. What was more surprising was that a total of 66% of Americans stated that the law was discriminatory as opposed to 31% who said it was not. The polls are not far off other, older polls on the subject.

Among those moderate Senators who are expressing their support for the review by the military include, unsurprisingly, Susan Collins of Maine. During her questioning, Senator Collins was the only one of the Republicans who spoke who asked honest and real questions of Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mullen. Regarding Admiral Mullen’s statements regarding how other nations have already removed their bans on gays and lesbians in the military, Senator Collins stated “that was useful information to get on the record, and we’ll see where we go from here.” However, she was less clear regarding her support for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’s repeal by stating “That’s not what is before us. Right now, what’s before us now is to authorize the department to do a study of what the issues would be of changing the policy, and I support that, and that’s what the president has proposed, so we need to see. I obviously think that the review is needed and that the policy needs to be reconsidered.”

Senators Jim Webb and Mark Begich also stated that they are strongly supporting the review of the law. Senator Webb stated in support of Gates and Mullen “they were careful in terms of how they laid it out and I think it’s absolutely the right way to go.” According to Begich “Obviously, Mullen said that it needs to be changed, or at least moved through, so I thought that was a very interesting statement by military command. That’s what I’ll be looking to, to see what their policy would be and what they intend to do.”

Currently, the most vocal opponents of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell have been stating how they believe that the law should not be repealed in a time of war. At least, those opponents who are not offering up rather horrific homophobic rants about gays and straights showering together in the barracks.