Don't Ask, Don't Tell On the Campaign Trail

[babylonsister]

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters/328461

Don't Ask, Don't Tell On the Campaign Trail
posted by Cora Currier on 06/10/2008 @ 1:55pm


A year ago, in June 2007, all the Democratic candidates vowed that as president they would lift "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," (DADT) Bill Clinton's messy 1993 compromise on gay men and women serving in the military. By banning gay people from serving openly, the policy was intended as a "loophole" through which gay people could serve without ruffling the feathers of conservatives. As young activists at an initiative called Harvard Right to Serve put it, "you can be gay in the military...only until someone finds that you are gay in the military." Hillary Clinton broke with her husband's policy in 1999, and both she and Barack Obama made the repeal of the law a cornerstone of their message to LGBT voters.

Unsurprisingly, John McCain has remained on the Republican side of the issue, claiming last year that "It's working, so leave it alone. Generally, overall, it's working....And right now we've got the best military we've ever had - the most professional, best trained, equipped and the bravest. And so I think it's logical to leave this issue alone. I really do."

In fact, DADT has resulted in over 11,000 dismissals from the military since its enactment. Besides its inherently discriminatory nature, DADT also creates an atmosphere where harassment goes unreported, and claims that allowing openly gay people to serve would lessen military capacity have been debunked by the British, Canadian and Israeli militaries, all of which allow gays to serve.

Recently, 20 students from Harvard embarked on a "Right to Serve" tour of military recruitment offices in the Northeast. At each office, an openly gay student attempted to sincerely enlist. When denied, the group staged sit-ins in the offices. The tour also targeted Senators up for reelection, pressuring them to make DADT a part of their platform. Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine, told the group that now that Democrats were in control congress, the ball was in their court.

Can the Democrats muster the political support to repeal DADT? Making it a campaign issue risks driving the "social issues" wedge into the election, as happened with gay marriage in 2004. But the progressive leanings of younger voters could help-- in 2006, 72% of 18-29 year olds supported lifting DADT, according to the Pew Research Center. Yet another example of how the surge in youth voting can help advance more than just Obama.