By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:48pm
Last week, the U.S. Senate tried — and failed — to begin debate on the National Defense Authorization Act, preventing the repeal of the discriminatory and unconstitutional "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy from advancing in the Senate — despite the support of a majority of senators and the personal pleas of President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 6:40pm
The second day of landmark hearings in the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Pentagon’s just-released report on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) saw testimony from much of the uniformed leadership of the armed forces, including the chiefs of all four service branches – Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:45pm
Earlier today, the Pentagon released a much-anticipated report on the discriminatory and unconstitutional policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” (DADT) and the findings in it provide a critical boost to ongoing efforts to pass repeal through Congress before the end of the year. Most notably, the report found that a large majority of respondents to a survey of active-duty and reserve service members and their families say that ending the DADT policy barring lesbian and gay service members from serving openly would not have an adverse effect on military operations.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 4:20pm
Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) pre-emptively attacked an as-yet-to-be-released Pentagon study exploring the views and attitudes of active-duty and reserve service members, as well as military families, on a possible repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT). The report is also supposed to explore how best to implement a repeal of the discriminatory and unconstitutional policy.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:56am
Over the weekend, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told the Associated Press that he would like to see Congress act to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" during the upcoming lame duck session, but that "I'm not sure what the prospects for that are." Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) is in talks with Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) about the possibility of stripping DADT repeal from the larger defense bill, in order to pass the legislation before the end of the current congressional session. Such a move would effectively kill legislative repeal of DADT for this year and, because of the recent midterm congressional elections, significantly increase the hurdles for such an effort in the new Congress which will be formally seated in January.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:19pm
Last Thursday, the White House released what is perhaps the most important submission to date for the It Gets Better Project. In a three-minute long video message to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth — far too often the victims of unrelenting discrimination and harassment in their schools — President Obama conveys his support and encouragement to these young people. President Obama says:
Great news! U.S. District Court Judge Ronald B. Leighton has ordered the Air Force to reinstate flight nurse Maj. Margaret Witt. Maj. Witt was discharged from the Air Force in 2006 under the military's unconstitutional Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 3:30pm
The New York Times' "At War" blog on Monday released the stories of seven current and former service members and their experiences in the military under the discriminatory and counterproductive "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy. You would be very hard-pressed to read these powerful testimonials from obviously outstanding members of the armed forces and not come away with the impression that DADT has undermined and weakened our military, and destroyed very promising careers.
Lauren Zulkoski and Ellie DePue, two University of Colorado students, heard about Lady Gaga's call for Congress to repeal the discriminatory and counterproductive policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) and decided they wanted to do something about it. So they filmed themselves calling their senator to show people how easy it is to take action. Then, for good measure, they went and asked their neighbors to call too.
By Ian S. Thompson, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 5:18pm
On Thursday evening, U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Phillips ruled that the discriminatory and counterproductive policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) violates the constitutional rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual servicemembers. In clear and striking language in the 86-page opinion, Judge Phillips stated that DADT has a "direct and deleterious effect" on the armed forces, and issued a permanent injunction barring enforcement of the policy (a step almost certain to be fought by the government).
