Senate Repeals "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright December 18, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

             Getting the last laugh in the U.S. Senate, the small but vociferous GOP minority that blocked a final vote Dec. 9 of repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” led by ranking Armed Services Committee member Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) got its comeuppance with the full Senate approving the repeal 65-31.  McCain rejected a Nov. 30 Pentagon study that indicated no real consequences ending the 17-year-old Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy allowing gays and lesbians to serve as long as they conceal sexual identities.  Continuing “don’t ask, don’t tell” ran afoul with hard-fought civil rights laws protecting minorities.  “It’s time to close this chapter in our history,” said President Barack Obama that favored ending the controversial rule.  “It’s time to recognize that sacrifice, valor and integrity are no more defined by sexual orientation than they are by race or gender, religion or creed.”

            When McCain and fellow conservatives blocked the Senate vote on repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell Dec. 9, supporters thought the matter was dead for the current legislative session.  Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) did a masterful job maneuvering the repeal back on the Senate calendar before the Christmas recess only two days removed from the Senate’s historic vote approving a continuation of Bush-era tax cuts, something backed by Obama, much to the chagrin of disingenuous conservatives painting him as a tax-and-spend liberal.  McCain and his band of misguided conservatives couldn’t stop prevailing societal trends that allow research, not quiet prejudice and bigotry, to rule the day.  Convergent legal trends around the country, especially in California and Massachusetts, morphed gay rights into legitimate hard-fought civil rights.

            McCain & Co. had no real answer other than unfounded scare tactics about how gays open service would endanger combat operations.  “As Barry Goldwater said, ‘You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight,’” said Reid, reminding his GOP colleagues that their once conservative Republican from Arizona favored openness in the military.  Since 1993 when the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy went into effect, over 13,500 gay soldier were terminated from military service.  While no one yet knows the numbers, it’s expected that the military can expect more gay recruits into today’s voluntary armed services Serving openly without reprisals gay and lesbians are free to succeed based on merit not whether their commanding officers hold prejudice against their sexual orientations.  In just two days, Obama was able to guide through two pieces of highly controversial bipartisan legislation.

            Refusing to admit defeat, McCain sounded a defiant tone:  “They will do what is asked of them.  But don’t think there won’t be a great cost,” said McCain, not specifying what he meant.  When the Army reported its recent findings, it showed that service members didn’t think that changing the law would have much effect.  Six GOP senators broke with conservatives and some Pentagon brass that saw the change as a dangerous distraction to combat service.  While eight Republicans joined Senate Democrats, the issue of repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” ran across Party lines.  Too much established case law had already equated sexual orientation with basic civil rights protected by the 14th amendment’s equal protect clause.  Law-abiding senators from both parties couldn’t continue the kind of obsolete, mean-spirited prejudice that kept gays and lesbians bound by unconstitutional discrimination.

            Civil rights advocacy groups called the Senate vote the “defining civil rights initiative of the decade,” right up there with courts in Massachusetts and California invoking Brown v. Board of Education to strike down “separate-but-equal” provisions allowing gays and lesbians to serve the military as long as they do so surreptitiously.  “This has been a long fought battle, but failed a discriminatory law will now be history,” said Joe Solmonese, president of Human Rights Campaign.  Logic and precedent were not on McCain’s side, with too many legal victories for gays and lesbians forcing changes in age-old prejudices.  Europeans and South Americans have long passed laws to allow gays to serve openly in the military.  They’ve seen no adverse consequences to open gay military service, despite warnings from Army Chief George W. Casey Jr. and Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos.

            Pushing hard to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen urged Pentagon brass to accept changing times, putting the military in line with the U.S. Constitution.  “I don’t want to lose any Marines to the distraction,” said Amos, before the historic Senate vote.  “I don’t want to have any Marines that I’m visiting at Bethesda [Naval Medical Center] with no legs to be a result of any type of distraction,” blaming repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” on future casualties.  Amos—and other Pentagon brass—knows that putting troops in harm’s way in misguided wars in Afghanistan and Iraq cause troop casualties, not ending a discriminatory practice.  Putting an exclamation point on a tumultuous political year, the Senate acted to bring the Pentagon in line with the U.S. Constitution.  Any other reason makes no sense.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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