Gay Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, the first U.S. service member wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom, is scheduled to testify at a congressional hearing on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ next week. Alva was not expelled under the policy and Congress is so far not expected to hear from any of the more than 12,000 service members kicked out for being gay. (File photo by Henry Linser)
Congress to hold hearing on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Some experts say military’s gay ban is ‘on its last legs’
An upcoming congressional hearing on the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, coupled with recent calls from former military leaders to repeal the law, is raising questions about whether the gay ban is nearing its end.
The congressional hearing on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” scheduled for Wednesday, is slated to feature witnesses on both sides of the issue. They will make their cases before the personnel subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee.
Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.), chair of the subcommittee, said she decided to hold the hearing because Congress has not looked at military policy toward gays in 15 years.
“Being in the middle of the two wars, as we have been, I think the issue has come up repeatedly, and it’s important to start that conversation,” she said.
The hearing marks the first time that Congress has held a discussion devoted to gays in the military since lawmakers passed the law barring open service in 1993.
Witnesses that Democrats have selected to speak at the hearing include Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, who is gay and the first U.S. service member wounded in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Alva lost his right leg as a result of his injury.
Alva said he intends to tell lawmakers about his experience in the Marine Corps, how he was injured on the first day of the Iraq war and how current military policy shows that there is “prejudice” in the U.S. government.
“We’re allowing our prejudice to be put into action by allowing this discriminatory policy of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ to still exist, even in this day and age,” he said.
Alva, who left the military in a medical retirement, said “it just doesn’t make sense” to discharge people who are playing important roles in the military because of their sexual orientation.
Other witnesses chosen by Democrats include retired Capt. Joan Darrah, a former Navy intelligence officer and lesbian, and retired Army Maj. Gen. Vance Coleman, who is straight and a decorated division commander.
Republicans have selected Elaine Donnelly, president for the Center for Military Readiness and opponent of gays serving openly in the military, and retired Army Sgt. Maj. Brian Jones, who formerly served in special operations.
No one who has been discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is slated to testify before Congress.
'BREAKING THE ICE'
A number of gay advocacy groups, including the Human Rights Campaign and Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays, are planning to submit written testimony to the committee.
Davis said organizers had to “really bend over backwards” to create what she called “a balanced hearing” with witnesses on both sides of the issue.
The subcommittee asked the Defense Department to send a representative to the hearing, but the department declined.
“I would have frankly liked to have witnesses from the Department of Defense, but at this particular time we’re not doing that and they’re really not quite willing to come forward,” Davis said.
DOD did not respond to a request seeking comment.
Davis said the upcoming hearing should “break the ice” for involving DOD in future hearings on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Another recent event drawing attention to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is a discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival in which creators of the law called on the Pentagon and Congress to take another look at the issue.
Gen. Colin Powell, former Secretary of State and chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was implemented, told the audience in Aspen, Colo., that “the country has changed enormously in 15 years” and said it was time to “review the policy.”
In his tenure as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Powell was one of the architects of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and recommended the policy to Congress.
Powell told his audience that he was “not prepared to say we should do away with” current policy “until you have talked with the people who have to execute it and implement it - the armed forces leadership.”
Powell said he took issue with how the prohibition of open service in the armed forces became law, and said he would have preferred that it not be a law, but simply a military policy, “so the military could deal with it.”
Powell also drew a distinction between how the prohibition of open service in the military is different from how blacks were once segregated from whites in the armed forces.
“I think it’s a different issue,” he said. “I think sexuality and sexual preferences and the confines of barracks life is a different issue.”
Sam Nunn, who was a Democratic senator from Georgia and chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee when “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was implemented, spoke during the same forum at the festival and also called for a review of current policy.
Nunn already said in a June 3 interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that military leaders should examine how the policy is working.
“I think [when] 15 years go by on any personnel policy, it’s appropriate to take another look at it - see how it’s working, ask the hard questions, hear from the military,” Nunn told the Journal-Constitution. “Start with a Pentagon study.”
REPORT PUSHES REPEAL
Another group of high-ranking retired military officers called on Congress to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and allow the Pentagon handle the issue of gays in the armed forces.
The officers, a general or admiral from each of the four services, voiced their opinion in a report published July 7 by the Palm Center at the University of California.
Nathaniel Frank, a senior research fellow for the Palm Center, acknowledged that these events are representative of “an enormous amount of momentum for change” that has “been building for quite some time.”
Frank said the current law is “on its last legs,” but noted that Congress may be reluctant to address the issue.
“It’s something that I think scares lawmakers because many are still scarred from [former President] Clinton’s war wounds in the early ‘90s,” he said.
Clinton promised to allow open service in his 1992 presidential campaign, but acquiesced to pressure from Congress on the issue in his first year in the White House.
Frank said Iraq is a bigger issue and the next administration would take up war policy in its first few months as opposed to addressing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
The researcher said he could not anticipate when lawmakers would take up the military policy toward gays, but he added, “it’s hard to imagine this [policy] remaining past the next Congress.”
But Donnelly, the opponent of gays in the military who will testify before lawmakers, said she expects that the current law will be retained.
Donnelly drew a distinction between the law that Congress passed in 1993 and the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, which Clinton issued to execute the law. Donnelly said she supports the law but not Clinton’s policy.
“That law has been upheld as constitutional several times as recently as last month,” she said. “There is absolutely no reason to repeal it, and the confusion caused by ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is part of the problem here,” she said.
YEARS AWAY?
Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said in an interview in May that even with a new Democratic administration in the White House, getting Congress to repeal military policy would be difficult in 2009. Congress would “certainly” repeal the statute by 2010 or 2011, he said.
Davis said she has no idea when current law on military policy toward gays would change, but she does not expect Congress to address the issue during this administration. A change in policy is “certainly at least a few years out,” she said.
The lawmaker said military policy toward gays is “not really a Democrat or Republican issue” because the families involved in the matter have different political stripes.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has promised during the campaign that he would work to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” if elected to the White House. The Obama campaign declined to comment on how high a priority repealing the law would be for his administration.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain has stated in the Republican presidential primary debates that he supports current military policy toward gays. The McCain campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Davis is a sponsor of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which is in limbo in the U.S. House. The bill, which has 143 co-sponsors, would end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and establish a non-discrimination policy for gays in the military.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re adhering to the law because it is the law now, but that operationally there are not a lot of impediments to lifting it,” Davis said. “And I think that it’s in our best interest to do that.”
The
following comments were posted by our readers and were
not edited by SOVO. We ask that you
treat others with respect; any post deemed offensive will
be removed.
