Sen. Chris Dodd Calls For Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Posted on March 15, 2007
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This appears to be a campaign message, but I don’t doubt Dodd’s sincerity. Because of perceived hawkishness, I’ve never thought of him as being liberal in the broadest sense. It’s fitting that he makes a credible hawkish argument for ending discrimination against gays in the military.

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, by the way, was a bad compromise made during Bill Clinton’s administration. Before DADT, gays and lesbians were not allowed to serve, period. At the time it was passed, it was a major change, because of the “don’t ask” part. GLBT folks have always had the choice to tell or not tell with the result being the same. “Don’t ask,” was intended to to head off witch hunt kinds of purges. Unfortunately, many in the military missed the spirit of the compromise.

It’s really sad that Andrew Sullivan in his blog insinuates that discrimination in the military began with Bill Clinton. I find that pretty distorted. To his credit, Sullivan in his book, Virtually Normal, raised the issue to much greater prominence.

The good part is that during and after Clinton, we began to acknowledge that many, many glbt folks serve honorably, and without all the tensions that opponents claimed would happen. Now it’s time to address the reality that many military folks will not act in the spirit of the law, and make all discrimination against glbt service members illegal.