An Essay on Don't Ask, Don't Tell

After a very busy few days, I have two Nuke episodes of As the World Turns to catch up with. Hopefully I will be writing about those episodes tomorrow.

In the meantime, I wanted to direct your attention to the matter of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. It is expected that the Obama Administration will be announcing their plan for moving forward on the matter tomorrow before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Karen Ocamb has a very insightful essay up on LGBT POV about what she calls President Obama's 'Clintonian Compromise' on repealing the policy:

'Let’s face it: the Commander-in-Chief and Congress are secretly afraid of the old men in the military. And the old men in the military, so accustomed to automatic deference by all branches of the US government, are afraid of losing their power as times and the culture change. They cannot fathom that younger soldiers and leaders, the ones the old men are sending to fight two wars, are no longer afraid of dropping their soap bar in the shower.

How else explain the compromise the Obama Administration, the Pentagon and Congress are expected to announce at Tuesday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing?

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But what will that hearing do? Will it be an hour where Gates simply announces the “stricter” evidentiary rule for discharges? Or will discharged personnel be able to testify how DADT ruined their lives when all they wanted to do was to serve this country? Will evidence be admitted from the Joint Force Quarterly which called “don’t ask, don’t tell” a failure and said openly gay servicecmembers do not undercut unit cohesion? Will the Rand Corporation report – requested by Clinton and Congress in 1993 – be admitted? That report concluded that sexual orientation has nothing to do with military service.

During his State of the Union address, Obama talked about providing greater support for veterans and made note of how First Lady Michelle Obama and the Vice President’s wife, Jill Biden, have taken on a special mission to help military families. Monday, Obama followed through on those promises in his new budget.

But will the Armed Services hearing include evidence about how gay and lesbian veterans are left to fend for themselves – and how the families of the estimated 65,000 gay servicemembers currently serving under DADT are not receiving any support and are not allowed to talk about their loved one for fear that such information could lead to a witchhunt and discharge – in a time of war! Will the hearing include testimony about how any new policy or repeal legislation should include retroactive funding to support vets and LGBT families?'

This is just a small highlight of the essay. The whole thing is very much worth reading. Ocamb goes into a lot of detail on how the original 'compromise' that created Don't Ask Don't Tell came about in 1993 and on the progress of President Obama's own campaign promise to end the policy, as well as what we can expect tomorrow at the hearing.