That Washington
DADT Point of Confusion: Gays Can't Serve Just Yet
Don't Ask, Don't Tell was a compromise struck back in 1993 by President Bill Clinton over the question of whether gays could serve in the military. At that time, they could not.
DADT was a nod-and-wink policy that essentially allowed gays to serve as long as they weren't open (gay) about it, ending 200-plus-year explicit ban on gays in the military. (There were anti-sodomy laws that got soldiers court-martialed during the Revolutionary War, and, in the mid-20th Century, gay soldiers were sent to a psychiatrist before being booted.)
So, repealing that compromise, brings us right back to 1992, no?
I asked Sen. Patty Murray's office about this today and they said: "Before DADT, the military had regulations in place that precluded gays and lesbians from serving. The DADT repeal will enable the military to put in place regulations that will allow gays and lesbians to serve openly."
So, the question is this: Is there something in writing as part of President Obama's repeal that guarantees those regulations will, in fact, be put into place?
Yes. Here's the deal: Until 1992, the military had regulations barring gays from serving, but there was nothing in federal law addressing the gay issue. DADT directly addressed the issue, and, ironically, while it was a compromise that was tailored to allow gays to serve, it also made it illegal by federal law for gays to serve. The repeal of that federal law (so, now no federal justification for dismissing gays) also directs the military to come up with new regulations that explicitly allows gays to serve.
Murray's office explains:
DADT was a nod-and-wink policy that essentially allowed gays to serve as long as they weren't open (gay) about it, ending 200-plus-year explicit ban on gays in the military. (There were anti-sodomy laws that got soldiers court-martialed during the Revolutionary War, and, in the mid-20th Century, gay soldiers were sent to a psychiatrist before being booted.)
So, repealing that compromise, brings us right back to 1992, no?
I asked Sen. Patty Murray's office about this today and they said: "Before DADT, the military had regulations in place that precluded gays and lesbians from serving. The DADT repeal will enable the military to put in place regulations that will allow gays and lesbians to serve openly."
So, the question is this: Is there something in writing as part of President Obama's repeal that guarantees those regulations will, in fact, be put into place?
Yes. Here's the deal: Until 1992, the military had regulations barring gays from serving, but there was nothing in federal law addressing the gay issue. DADT directly addressed the issue, and, ironically, while it was a compromise that was tailored to allow gays to serve, it also made it illegal by federal law for gays to serve. The repeal of that federal law (so, now no federal justification for dismissing gays) also directs the military to come up with new regulations that explicitly allows gays to serve.
Murray's office explains:
Once [DADT] is repealed, there will be no mechanism for the military to kick out gays and lesbians. And the direction of the report referred to in the legislation makes it clear that the regulations that will be put in place will be ones that accommodate gay and lesbian service members serving openly.
So the bottom line is that the legislation itself simply repeals DADT—it does not explicitly say gays and lesbians can serve. But without [DADT] there is no reason they couldn’t—and the regulations that will be put in place will reflect that.
