Momentum to lift the U.S. military's ban on openly gay service members got yet another boost last week, this time from top Illinois Democrats. Senators Roland W. Burris and Richard J. Durbin signed on as co-sponsors of Sen. Joe Lieberman's, I-Conn., bill—the Military Readiness Enhancement Act—calling for and end to the 17-year "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ( DADT ) policy.
Specifically, the bill would bar sexual orientation discrimination on current service members and future recruits. The measure also bans armed forces' discharges based on sexual orientation from the date the law is enacted, at the same time the bill stipulates that soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Coast Guard members previously discharged under the policy be eligible for re-enlistment.
"For too long, gay and lesbian service members have been forced to conceal their sexual orientation in order to dutifully serve their country," Burris said March 3.
"With this bill, we will end this discriminatory policy that grossly undermines the strength of our fighting men and women at home and abroad." Repealing DADT, he went on to say in a press statement, will enable service members to serve "openly and proudly without the threat of prejudice or discharge."
By March 5, word came that Durbin had joined fellow Senate Democratic co-sponsors of Lieberman's proposed legislation, including Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer of California, Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of N.Y., Carl Levin of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon.
Sure enough, Durbin's sponsorship came as no surprise to local activist Michael Bauer, a supporter and personal friend. "The senator has publicly advocated repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' before and has been highly supportive of a wide range of [ pro- ] LGBT issues," Bauer said, citing the recently enacted hate-crimes legislation. Durbin was, in fact, a key player in gaining U.S. Senate approval for the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Act that President Barack Obama signed into law last October, according to Bauer.
Durbin's national press secretary Max Gleischman confirmed the co-sponsorship in a press statement March 8: "Senator Durbin supports allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military."
The Senate's Military Readiness Enhancement Act closely mirrors a bill by the same name in the House of Representatives, where lead sponsor U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Penn., has lined up 189 co-sponsors with verbal commitments from two dozen congressmen, nearly assuring its passage in that legislative body where 218 votes are required.
"We have the votes in the House," Murphy told the Advocate's Kerry Eleveld last week shortly after a House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee heard from Pentagon officials.
"We are going to get this thing done this year—I don't care if it's a stand alone bill attached to the Defense Authorization Act or any other piece of legislation. But this will change this year," he said.
The Senate version of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act also provides for a maximum of 15 months upon enactment for review and revision of military regulations and policies to bring the armed forces in compliance with new federal law. The review timeline in the House version is shorter.
Meanwhile, congressional hearings about DADT continued on Capitol Hill during a House Armed Services subcommittee. On hand to testify were Jeh Johnson, general counsel of the Department of Defense, and Gen. Carter Ham, commanding general of U.S. Army Europe—co-chairs of the Pentagon's working group that is studying how to repeal DADT. Joining them was Clifford Stanley, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.
Johnson and Ham were appointed by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to study the repeal's implementation.
The study group, Johnson and Ham said, consisted of four teams—survey; legislative, regulatory and legal; policy development; and education and training.
Gathering survey information, Ham said, would include "wide outreach to get a wide variety of views."
He added, "A wide variety of individuals —both within the Department of Defense and without—who will have views on this matter will have an opportunity for their voices to be heard."
Johnson said, "I would think that our review might inform what this Congress might want to do."
Ham added, "It's important that we understand the impacts of repeal before it occurs."
Like their counterparts in the Senate, several House Armed Services Committee members advocated a moratorium on discharges while the study proceeds, including Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass.
"To me, doesn't a moratorium make sense for no other reason than you can solicit information [ from gay and lesbian service members ] without having to hire third party contractors who are not subject to 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell," she said over the telephone after the hearings.
Tsongas was referring to the wide net Pentagon officials said they intended to cast moving forward on repeal, while noting that gathering information from active duty gay soldiers, sailors, and airmen would, in fact, trigger DADT.
"A moratorium would eliminate the need for third parties," she said, simplifying a process that is "far more complicated than need be."
Tsongas also voiced apprehension about the study group being "weighted all against repeal," with "so many members of the military who have expressed skepticism and even hostility" over the process.
"I am concerned that they get people with balanced views at the table," she said. "My preference would be for more who are in favor of repeal so the process is fair from the get go."
In other developments, one opponent of repealing DADT voiced his view in a March 5, high-profile New York Times op-ed. "Advocates for gays in the service have by and large avoided discussion of unit cohesion," wrote Former Air Force Chief of Staff Merrill McPeak.
Not so, said Nathaniel Frank, author of Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America, in a March 4 New Republic article.
"There are at least twenty studies from the last fifty years, many written by the military's own researchers, which find that gay and lesbian troops do not harm cohesion," he said the same day Mc Peak's piece was published.
Also, an article published earlier this year by the office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded, "There is not scientific evidence to support the claim that unit cohesion will be negatively affected if homosexuals serve openly."
Read a Windy City Times interview with U.S. Sen. Roland Burris about DADT at www.WindyCityMediaGroup.com .
