You are here: Home » Featured » Pentagon May Appoint Advisers To Help Implement Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal

Pentagon May Appoint Advisers To Help Implement Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal

02/01/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
On 2 February, the first hearings regarding Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell are to begin. At these hearings, the Pentagon is rumored to announce that they will appoint two advisers to help create a path towards implementation of the repeal. The advisers, one military and one civilian, would recommend the steps that the military needs in order comply with the repeal. Who these advisers are or would be still remains to be seen. Of course, the Pentagon could just look to the blogosphere in order to get some ideas.

The Pentagon will have to look at a few issues such as bereavement, survivor and marriage benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian soldiers. Of course, this would be a moot point if the Defense of Marriage Act was not in place, and may become a moot point in the near future. Of course, for some members of the military, the possibility of getting married in places such as Massachusetts, Vermont, Iowa, New Hampshire and Connecticut already exists. The easiest solution for this particular one is to grant benefits based upon current laws regarding marriage and bereavement benefits within the military. If a couple does get married in one of the states that grant those rights now, the simplest thing would be to recognize that license and grant them all the rights of married couple. Beyond that, grant them the same rights as any non-married but cohabiting couple within the military.

Some within the upper echelons of the military as well as some politicians are opposed to repealing DADT until after all troops withdraw from Iraq. This is suppose to be because of the strain that the military is under. Many of the lower ranked soldiers support repealing DADT as a strong and quick way to ease the burden created by a lack of troops.

The Pentagon has refused to comment upon this possibility and it was made by an anonymous source to Reuters.

The National Review Online ran with an article blasting the push to end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and noted this erroneously “Contrary to the president’s statement, there is no national desire to “finally” repeal the 1993 law (Section 654, Title 10). The statute, which is always mislabeled ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ states that homosexuals are not eligible to serve in the military. Only the well-funded LGBT Left is pushing this issue, and they expect a political payoff regardless of the consequences.” This is, of course, patently wrong. Since 2005, the polling has shown that the vast majority of Americans are for repealing DADT. The numbers since then have ranged from 75 to 80% of the country is in favor of scrapping DADT entirely. Two thirds of Conservatives are ready to scrap DADT according to the latest poll done for the Washington Post-ABC News.