American Civil Liberties Union

(Originally posted on Huffington Post.)

All of America watched New Jersey's gubernatorial election. Some interpreted the result as a referendum on Barack Obama's leadership, but everyone voting in our state understood that the Democrat on the ticket was Jon Corzine, and Corzine alone, not a stand-in for our president.

Kudos to California Congresswomen Sue Davis and Ellen Tauscher for initiating what could be the beginning of the end of former President Bill Clinton's colossally stupid, discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy barring gays and lesbians from serving in the military. Congresswoman Davis held a hearing in the House Armed Services' Personnel Readiness Subcommittee yesterday.

The Washington Post reported last weekend that a whopping 75 percent of Americans think that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the military. (A CNN poll from May puts the figure as high as 79 percent.) Since enacting the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy 15 years ago, the military has dismissed more than 12,500 gay men and lesbians. ABC News reports that the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) "says nearly 800 of those dismissed had skills the Pentagon deemed 'mission critical.'"

Our brothers and sisters are blazing a trail for civil equality with the advent of same-sex marriage in California this week. For those of us who don't live in the Golden State or Massachusetts (or other states with civil unions or domestic partnerships) recognition of our committed relationships may seem like a long way off.

Here in North Carolina we have no statewide anti-discrimination laws for LGBTs, no hate crimes protections, not even anti-bullying laws (though the School Violence Prevention Act has a fair chance of passing this time around). The only reference to marriage is the perennial filing of an onerous marriage amendment into the General Assembly.

Here in Washington, D.C., efforts to finally repeal the discriminatory and ineffective "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy gather increasing momentum by the day. However, some in the Pentagon could do better by more closely listening to the views of Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of U.S. Central Command, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Michael Mullen. In appearances before two congressional committees yesterday, Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, and Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff, expressed their mutual concerns about moving too swiftly in repealing DADT.