2074
(1 vote, average 5.00 out of 5)
Written by Lisa Neff, Staff writer
Dec 30, 2010
Photo: Courtesy White House
Sixty-six years ago, Army soldier Andy Lee rescued a fallen friend from a ravine in the snow-covered forests of Western Europe during what became known as the Battle of the Bulge.
President Barack Obama chose to pay tribute to Lee on Dec. 22, when he signed what activists, lawmakers and military officers described as monumental legislation repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the 17-year-old policy banning gays and lesbians from serving openly in the Armed Forces.
Obama told Lee’s story because 40 years after the battle, the rescued private, Lloyd Corwin, became re-acquainted with Lee and learned that the soldier who carried him to safer ground was gay.
Corwin knew that “valor and sacrifice are no more limited by sexual orientation than they are by race or by gender or by religion or by creed,” Obama said at the morning ceremony at the Interior Department.
Speaking directly to gay and lesbian servicemembers, the president said, “For a long time your service has demanded a particular kind of sacrifice. You’ve been asked to carry the added burden of secrecy and isolation. And all the while, you’ve put your lives on the line for the freedoms and privileges of citizenship that are not fully granted to you.”
At one poignant moment, Obama observed that because gays were forced to serve in silence “there will never be a full accounting” of their heroism. “Their service has been obscured in history. It’s been lost to prejudices that have waned in our own lifetimes.”
Now, the lifting of the ban will “strengthen our national security and uphold the ideals that our fighting men and women risk their lives to defend,” Obama promised.
By signing the bill, the president also fulfilled a 2008 campaign pledge and completed a mission identified in his first State of the Union address.
The president shared the signing stage with Vice President Joe Biden, Adm. Mike Mullen, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sens. Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins, Reps. Patrick Murphy, Susan Davis and Steny Hoyer and military veterans Eric Alva and Zoe Dunning.
“It is both morally and militarily simply the right thing to do,” Biden said of lifting the ban.
Retired Army Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer, who waged a high-profile battle to serve as an out lesbian, delivered the Pledge of Allegiance. Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff, a Vietnam veteran and leader on interfaith issues, delivered an invocation.
Also, U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., attended the ceremony, along with dozens of other elected officials, White House staff, Defense Department personnel, military veterans and civil rights activists.
“A stain has been removed from our nation,” said Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights group.
When DADT was passed 17 years ago, it was the result of a compromise negotiated between Bill Clinton, who had campaigned on a pledge to lift the military ban, and a GOP-controlled Congress that was opposed to allowing gays to serve openly in the Armed Forces, the nation’s largest employer.
Since 1993, the military has discharged 14,000 servicemembers under DADT.
Lame-duck dealing
In January 2010, Obama pledged to work with Congress to overturn DADT.
The House first voted for repeal in the spring, but efforts to repeal the policy in a massive defense-spending bill stalled in the Senate, where Republican John McCain of Arizona led the opposition to the drive just before the Nov. 2 elections.
Post-election, with 2010 coming to a close, opponents of DADT tried a new tactic and introduced stand-alone repeal bills. The House passed a repeal bill introduced by Democrats Patrick Murphy of Pennsylvania and Steny Hoyer of Maryland on Dec. 15. The vote was 250-175 and largely along party lines.
With momentum building, the Senate took up a measure introduced by Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Republican Susan Collins of Maine on Dec. 18. The Senate voted 65-31 to pass the bill, with eight Republicans joining 55 Democrats and two independents in favor of repeal.
U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said, “Just like we did after President Truman desegregated the military, we’ll someday look back and wonder what took Washington so long to fix it.”
McCain, a Vietnam veteran like Kerry, said servicemembers will do what they’re told, but lifting the gay ban would come at “a great cost.”
Change ahead
Ahead lies an integration process for the active duty service branches, as well as military reserve units and veterans affairs.
Gay servicemembers should not come out yet, advised activists and attorneys with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
“Until there is certification and until the 60-day congressional period is over, no one should be investigated or discharged under this discriminatory law,” cautioned SLDN executive director Aubrey Sarvis.
Meanwhile, gay veterans may need assistance in accessing benefits programs. “Assisting LGBT veterans by educating them to the VA system and removing the stigma of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ will continue to be a challenge,” said Ellen Kozel of the Wisconsin-based Vets Do Ask Do Tell.
Obama said he was confident the defense secretary and the service chiefs would navigate a smooth transition.
“We are not a nation that says, ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell,’” the president said. “We are a nation that says, ‘Out of many we are one.’ We are a nation that welcomes the services of every patriot. We are a nation that believes that all men and women are created equal. Those are the ideals that generations have fought for. Those are the ideals that we uphold today.”
