Young voters helped propel Barack Obama into the White House, but at Sunday’s National Equality March on the National Mall, there were no pro-Obama chants coming from the largely youthful crowd. With colorful signs, shouted slogans, and numerous speeches, thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activists expressed their disappointment with Obama’s failure to aggressively support gay civil rights and gay marriage.
They have a point. In a much-touted speech to the Human Rights Campaign on Saturday, Obama reiterated his support for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, but failed yet again to set a timeline for doing so, or to describe a concrete plan of action. In his first year in office, Obama has proven himself a competent president. Now the time has come for him to prove himself a just president as well, beginning by immediately suspending, and ultimately repealing, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
It’s difficult to quantify the damage “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has done to America’s armed forces, let alone to the men and women who are willing but unable to serve their country. Over 13,500 service members have been discharged since 1994, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, for being gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender. An article in Joint Force Quarterly, a top Pentagon journal, detailed the harm the policy has caused and called for its revocation. At a time when our military is stretched thin in Afghanistan and elsewhere, our country can ill afford to exclude servicemen and women for no reason.
The ban on openly gay members in the military isn’t just wrong—it’s also bad politics. According to a 2008 Washington Post/ABC News poll, 75 percent of Americans think openly gay service members should be allowed to serve.
According to the Center for American Progress, even a majority of people in the military oppose the policy. Obama has painstakingly calibrated his positions and actions, but this is one issue that needs no careful deliberation.
In fairness to Obama, there is some truth to the oft-repeated “full-plate” cliche. It couldn’t have been easy to stave off economic disaster while putting the country on track to pass critical health care reform legislation that’s been sought by Democrats for decades.
Still, when Congress has finalized a health care bill, repealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” should be next on Obama’s agenda.
A Center for American Progress report from June outlined the steps Obama should take to repeal the policy. The first step, signing an executive order nullifying the policy, is Obama’s choice to make. Georgetown students can help hurry along the next step in ending the policy by lobbying their representatives to repeal the bill in Congress.
If Obama is serious about his commitment to same-sex civil rights—not to mention the war in Afghanistan—he needs to repeal DADT, and the time to act is now.
