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Democrats Plan to Use Military Budget Bill to End Gay Banby Kilian MelloyThursday Nov 12, 2009 Congressional Democrats looking to repeal the military’s ban on openly gay troops are planning a possible amendment to a Department of Defense appropriations bill, possibly as early as next year.
Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank talked about the plan, reported Advocate.com in a Nov. 11 article. The use of an amendment to a budget bill, Frank said, was nothing unusual: "Military issues are always done as part of the overall authorization bill. [Language to repeal] ’Don’t ask, don’t tell’ was always going to be part of the military authorization."
GLBT equality leaders have expressed increasing frustration with what they perceive to be President Obama’s reluctance to get behind gay civil rights. Frank dismissed the notion that the Obama administration has been ignoring GLBT concerns, saying, "The Administration is totally committed to this and has been from the beginning."
Assuming the bill does contain the amendment and is approved, the military’s ban on openly gay troops would end as of October 1 of next year; however, Frank noted, as soon as the bill were signed into law, Obama could issue an executive order on the strength of the law, striking the ban.
Neither the White House nor the Senate would expressly confirm or deny Frank’s comments; a White House spokesperson would only say that, "The Administration is working with Congress to achieve a legislative repeal of ’don’t ask, don’t tell,’" while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s spokesperson Jim Manley said, "We are continuing to discuss legislative strategy with the White House and other members of the Senate."
Advocate.com noted that a bill to repeal DADT is currently working its way through the House, sponsored by Iraq veteran and Democratic congressman of Pennsylvania Patrick Murphy and co-sponsored by 183 representatives. In order to pass the House, the bill would need 218 votes; given that a number of other members of the House have reportedly said they would lend their support to the measure, the bill seems to be within striking range of passing.
The Senate may come up with its own bill to repeal the ban. The article said that Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman may be preparing to sponsor such legislation.
"What will happen is people will waste their time trying to get cosponsors of that bill from people who will vote for us anyway," Frank predicted, noting that it might be a hard task for a Senate sponsor to garner the 60 votes needed for such a bill to be approved.
The issue may prove to be fodder in next year’s midterm elections, reported The Hill on Nov. 11. Even so, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reportedly behind the plan; said Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill, "One legislative way or another, this policy, which is unfair to patriotic Americans who want to serve our country and strengthen our national security, must be changed."
The ban was put into law into 1993 through a similar amendment to a defense authorization bill, said a Nov. 10 Washington Blade article, which also noted that the recently passed Matthew Shepard James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed via a similar tactic.
Human Rights Campaign legislative director Allison Herwitt agreed that attaching the bill as an amendment to a defense authorization bill made sense, saying, "That’s where it should be."
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) spokesperson Kevin Nix said that the organization, which advocates and provides resources for gay and lesbian troops, said that the SLDN was "looking at all options" for repeal, whether a bill that addressed the issue separately or an amendment other legislation.
The military ban has generated considerable attention recently, with high-profile dismissals of long-serving veterans such as Lt. Dan Choi commanding headlines. Critics say that the ban is wasteful, costing the military the services of personnel with mission critical skills; Choi, for example, was an Arabic translator before he was discharged from the Army after coming out as gay on the Rachel Maddow Show earlier this year.
Moreover, a new study has shown that less than half of military members--40 percent--object to a repeal of the ban; mainstream America is even more supportive of allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly.
The debate has drawn in not only high-ranking officials and politicians, but professional groups such as the American Medical Association, which condemned the ban in the grounds that it might lead gay soldiers to omit or falsify information when consulting with their doctors. Military physicians and psychologists have been said to pass along word about gay and lesbian patients, leading to investigations and discharges. Said the University of Vermont’s Dr. David Fassler, "A law which makes people lie to their physicians is a bad law."
Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor.
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