2664
(0 votes, average 0 out of 5)
Written by Lisa Neff, Staff writer
Apr 7, 2011
Discharges of gay and lesbian servicemembers fell to an all-time low in 2010, partly due to a new directive from the defense secretary and the congressional focus on repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Last year began with President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union address, pledging to work with Congress and the Armed Forces to lift the ban against gays serving openly in the military. DADT was enacted in 1994. The year ended with Congress voting to repeal DADT, a process likely to take much of 2011.
For fiscal 2010, which ended in October, the Defense Department reported 250 discharges under DADT. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the U.S. Coast Guard, reported another 11 discharges under the policy, according to Servicemembers United, a watchdog and advocacy group based in Washington.
Annual figures released by the Defense and Homeland Security departments put the total number of discharges since 1994 at 13,686 personnel.
Servicemembers United estimates that the number is higher, at least 14,316 personnel, because the government’s official count doesn’t include discharges from the National Guard.
On April 1, the U.S. House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee held a hearing on the status of DADT’s repeal, with testimony coming from Clifford Stanley, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness and co-chair of the DADT Repeal Implementation Team. The committee also heard from Vice Adm. William Gortney.
The hearing was called to provide lawmakers with an update on how the DOD is lifting the ban, including the training efforts in each of the services.
Meanwhile, proponents of DADT continue to try to halt the repeal. “Our goal is to convince members of Congress that they must intervene,” said Elaine Donnelly of the anti-gay Center for Military Readiness.
One prominent proponent of repealing the repeal is former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008 and may run again in 2012. Huckabee, in a recent interview, claimed, “There’s been some talk that the military is fine with having same-sex orientation people. But if you really surveyed the combat troops, that is not at all the case.”
Responding, R. Clarke Cooper of the Log Cabin Republicans, said, “That Mr. Huckabee continues to fight the end of this failed and unconstitutional policy demonstrates that he is willing to put personal ambition and political pandering ahead of the priorities of the American people.”
LCR, a national gay GOP group, sued to overturn DADT in federal court. The case went to trial in July 2010, and Judge Virginia Phillips ruled in September that the policy violated the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution.
“As a combat veteran … I can attest that repeal strengthens unit cohesion, readiness and effectiveness,” said Cooper, who urged a focus “on the issues that matter most – cutting the deficit, balancing the federal budget, creating jobs and addressing the real challenges in the world today.”
