Pictured Former President Bill Clinton signed copies of his new book at Barbara's Books in Chicago.
Barbara's Books on the Near South Side hosted former President Bill Clinton for a booksigning July 1. The event was sold out days prior, and Clinton signed books for all 1,500 people. The crowd was very diverse both racially and age-wise, including many parents with young children.
In his new autobiography, My Life, Clinton recalls the public and Congressional debate over his promise to the lift the military's ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual service members.
President Clinton writes that he met with the Joint Chiefs, all of whom opposed lifting the military's ban. '(T)hey maintained that letting (gays) serve openly would be, in General Powell's words, 'prejudicial to good order and discipline,'' Clinton writes. In a new revelation, however, Clinton also says that the Joint Chiefs, despite their personal opposition, 'made it clear that if I ordered them to take action, they'd do the best job they could.'
Clinton also recalls meetings with members of the influential Senate Armed Services Committee, many of whom also opposed lifting the ban, including the Committee's Chairman, Sen. Sam Nunn. Clinton writes that he believed Nunn's arguments, and the arguments of others opposed to allowing open service, 'could have been used with equal force against Truman's order on integration.'
While Clinton notes that a slim majority of Americans supported his position on lifting the ban, most members of Congress viewed the support as insufficient. 'Congress,' he writes, 'thought it was a dead-bang loser for them.'
'With congressional defeat inevitable,' Clinton says, '(Defense Secretary) Les Aspin worked with Colin Powell and the Joint Chiefs on a compromise,' that became known as 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'
Though not stated specifically in My Life, Clinton's own opposition on the military's gay ban has only strengthened since leaving office. In a statement made to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) in October 2003, Clinton said that 'Simply put, there is no evidence to support a ban on gays in the military.' Since 1993, Clinton told SLDN, 'Our nation as a whole has moved significantly ... toward recognizing the full citizenship of gay Americans.' He also urged Americans to 'keep striving for the time when serving in our military is an honor open to everyone regardless of sexual orientation.'
'President Clinton, like the overwhelming majority of Americans, has learned first-hand the detrimental impact the military's gay ban continues to have on our armed forces,' said C. Dixon Osburn, Executive Director of SLDN. 'Congress should revisit this policy and repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' once and for all.'
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who voted against the gay ban as a Senator, has hinted that he might try to seek its removal if elected this November.
Kerry told the Army Times and its sister publications Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Times that 'It seems to me we are losing a lot of talent for our nation in interpreters, in intelligence, in a lot of different things. There must be a way for those people to serve somehow.'
'Why is the Dept. of Defense continuing to hunt down and discharge able and patriotic service members under 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' while it is forcing retired members back into service?,' asks the pro-gay American Veterans for Equal Rights [AVER] group. 'The military is facing unprecedented shortfalls in manpower as evidenced by the Dept. of Defense's announcement it is calling up 5,400 members of the Individual Ready Reserve. At that same time they are discharging over 700 gay, lesbian and bisexual servicemembers yearly.'
Gay.com said Clinton's book 'gives very little attention to gay politics, a topic that at times dominated national news and preoccupied White House political operations during the eight tumultuous years of his presidency.'
The 957-page book has three pages on the 1993 gays-in-the-military battle, 'but none to Roberta Achtenberg's appointment as assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development, a fight that same year in which Jesse Helms labeled her a 'damn lesbian' on the Senate floor. There is no reference to James Hormel's nomination as U.S. envoy to Luxembourg. The gay philanthropist's nomination languished for more than a year under a 'hold' by four right-wing senators until Clinton put him in office with a recess appointment,' Gay.com reported.
