The U.S. House of Representatives indirectly reaffirmed its support of the antigay military policy known as 'don't ask, don't tell' in a vote Feb. 2.
The 'Sense of Congress' resolution, which passed 327 to 84 and has no binding legal power, goes on record as opposing a November ruling by a federal circuit court in Philadelphia that struck down the so-called Solomon Amendment as unconstitutional. It urged an appeal to the Supreme Court.
The background to this convoluted story is that most of the nation's law schools have denied access to military recruiters because 'don't ask, don't tell' violates their policies of nondiscrimination. The Solomon Amendment forced the law schools to help military recruiters or lose access to all government funded programs, including student loans.
A coalition of law schools sued to block the law, and the appeals court agreed with their arguments. The majority opinion read in part, 'The law schools believe that employment discrimination is inconsistent with their commitment to justice and fairness' and should not be compelled to accept recruiters.
A group of conservative Republicans in the House proposed the resolution and it breezed through. No Republicans voted against it, and even Democrats supported it by a margin of 104 to 83.
'The military certainly has the right—and the responsibility—to recruit the best and brightest, but the best and brightest includes lesbian, gay and bisexual students too,' said Sharra E. Greer, director of law and policy for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
'That's exactly why it should abandon 'don't ask, don't tell.' If Congress were truly concerned about national security, it would focus its attention on the talents of the nearly 10,000 lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members who have bee fired because of sexual orientation. It is the military's ban, and not the Third Circuit's decision that is contrary to our national security interests.'
Those concerns were underscored in an interview published on Feb. 3 by the American Forces Press Service in which Gail McGinn, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, stressed the need to recruit soldiers who speak Arabic. The Pentagon has sacked a score of Arabic speakers for being gay.
The Justice Department has indicated that it will appeal the Solomon decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. It has until March.