Our view: The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy runs contrary to both pragmatism and morals and must end.
Law school students continued their opposition to the Solomon Amendment – a Congressional provision mandating universities permit military recruiters on campus or risk losing federal dollars – as unconstitutional at a protest on Saturday. Arguing that the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy violates the University’s anti-discrimination policy, the Law School voted last year to join the Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights and fight the amendment. While the Law School should be commended for its public stand against this discriminatory policy, society at large must examine how repugnant the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy actually is.
The Clinton administration conceived the policy in good faith, fashioning it as a way to ease restrictions on homosexuals serving in the military. What began with the best intentions – a step on the way to full integration of gays – morphed into a witch hunt resulting in the expulsion of homosexuals from some of the military’s most important sectors.
Since it was implemented in 1993, over 10,000 servicepeople have been discharged for disclosing their sexual orientation. While the numbers are trending downward since September 11, 653 were discharged last year alone for being gay. The military dismissed 20 Arab language specialists – critical in the war on terror – simply for being gay. In a time when American forces are over-extended abroad, and there is a lack of highly-qualified specialists in current engagements, it is antithetical to support the exclusion of willing Americans simply because they are gay.
As compelling as pragmatic arguments are against the policy, moral objections to it are far more persuasive. In a country founded on liberty and equality – and one in which the president recently declared his desire to end racism – it is infuriating to consider the extent to which gay Americans are still treated as second-class citizens. Gay Americans serve openly in all branches of our government: in Congress, the Justice Department and elsewhere. Given this, it is illogical for homosexuals to continue to be excluded from serving openly in the military. The popular method of justifying such exclusion for morale considerations is disingenuous at best; those arguing against integrating the armed services in the 1940s used the same arguments. America deserves better.
The United States must reverse course and allow gay Americans to serve openly in the military. As American foreign responsibilities continue to grow, and the number of people specializing in those areas willing to serve in the military dwindling, the U.S. cannot exclude qualified people based on their sexual orientation. Most importantly, the U.S. cannot claim to support freedom and liberty abroad if it continues to repress the rights of a group on its own shores. The 12-year experiment with “don’t ask, don’t tell” must end; the United States must join the rest of the industrialized world by granting equal rights for gay Americans.
