Last December, Congress voted to end the 17-year-old “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy against gays serving openly in the military.
According to a recent Gallup poll on the subject, 67 percent of American citizens approved of this decision, including 47 percent of Republicans. On Dec. 22, President Barack Obama signed the repeal into action.
It’s been three months since the repeal was signed, but according to some, nothing has changed. According to the Log Cabin Republicans – an organization of gay, lesbian and transgender Republicans fighting for equal treatment – the discharging panel tasked with enforcing the ban is “still in place.”
So the question that is now being faced is why is this policy possibly still in effect?
Lee Badgett, director of the Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University of Massachusetts said such a panel could still exist as the legislation overturning the ban works its way through various appeals.
“The changes are playing out in a tough context, since the repeal efforts took two different paths: courts have been involved and both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government have been involved,” she said.
“That provides lots of opportunities for insiders to slow things down, even though some insiders and many outsiders would like implementation to be speedier,” Badgett added.
Badgett also stated that the repeal process would take a while for “political reasons,” something that most Americans don’t understand, she contended. Policies are Congress’ responsibility to sign into effect and repeal if they have failed, she explained.
President Obama signed repeal Dec. 22, in the process giving his administration authorization to take a range of measures to cement the repeal. The Pentagon is currently conducting research on what the effects of repealing the policy would be on the military’s composition and how to “train” troops for potential experiences in the military with openly gay soldiers.
The research has gone a long way, according to Genny Beemyn, director of the Stonewall Center at UMass.
“Articles that I have read have indicated that the LGBT awareness training of military leaders is going very well,” she said. “The head of the Marines, James Amos, who was openly opposed to repeal, now says that it is not a big deal and does not anticipate a loss of troops when the policy goes into effect. This is an important shift that demonstrates to me that education can have an important effect.”
In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Pursue” law into action. This law was put into place in response to mounting opposition to the law that preceded “Don’t Ask,” which did not allow gays to serve in the military at all.
Under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, military personnel were not to be asked of their sexual orientation and thus could not be discharged for being gay. However, should they be open about their sexual orientation, they could be discharged. According to The Washington Post, 3,660 troops were discharged on this foundation from 2004-2009, which reportedly cost the military about $193.3 million to replace the discharged troops.
This policy has been criticized by gay rights activists since it was signed into law. In 2004, the Log Cabin Republicans, filed a challenge to “Don’t Ask,” which contested whether or not the policy was constitutional. The trial began last July 13 in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif. before Judge Virginia Phillips. This case was the start of the repeal process of the DADT policy.
President Obama pledged he “will end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” during a speech to the Human Rights Campaign in 2009. The Obama administration has opposed the DADT policy as it has sought to make equal protection for gays and lesbians a pressing civil rights issue. President Obama also declared that, as a country, Americans should embrace those troops who volunteer their lives for our country.
“We should be celebrating their willingness to step forward and show such courage … especially when we are fighting two wars,” he said in the same 2009 speech.
On Friday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a brief in accordance with the case against the Log Cabin Republicans. The DOJ stated that, “For the foregoing reasons, the district court’s judgment and worldwide permanent injunction should be reversed.”
Although the DADT repeal process is in political limbo and taking longer to take effect than expected, the Obama administration is making it clear that it supports gay rights. On Feb. 21, Obama announced his executive administration would not be defending the Defense of Marriage Act anymore.
Similar to the DOJ, Obama has given Congress the responsibility of acting on both of these policies.
Beemyn believes the president has the power to force the repeal into effect, and that he should use what she sees as a mandate in public support to topple barriers to gays serving in the armed forces.
“Obama could stop the discharges now, especially given that public opinion is strongly behind ending the policy,” she said. “His decision yesterday not to defend DOMA any longer was a much more politically risky move.”
Claire Reid Kiss can be reached at [email protected].
