[Vision2020] Gays Should Serve Openly, Admiral says

[Tom Hansen]

It's a simple matter of equality, V-peeps.

Courtesy of today's (February 3, 2010) Spokesman-Review.

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Gays should serve openly, admiral says
Mullen’s testimony draws fire from GOP senators

WASHINGTON – The nation’s top military officer told Congress on Tuesday
that gay men and lesbians should be allowed to serve openly in the
military, the strongest endorsement ever by the nation’s military
leadership for overturning the law that excludes them from the U.S. Army,
Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen called repeal of
the ban “the right thing to do.”

“No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the
fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to
lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens,” Mullen
told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Mullen’s testimony drew angry responses from most of the committee’s
Republicans, in contrast to the deference they’d shown Mullen and Defense
Secretary Robert Gates in a morning session on the Pentagon’s budget,
where the Republicans declared the men two of the nation’s finest public
servants.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona spelled out his objections to repealing the
law, calling the current policy imperfect but effective, despite having
said four years ago that he’d defer to the wishes of military leaders on
the matter.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama pointedly reminded Mullen that Congress, not
the chairman, will decide if the law should be changed.

“I don’t think they are required to lie about who they are. I think that
is an overstatement,” Sessions told Mullen. “You shouldn’t use your power
to influence a discussion.”

“This is about leadership, and I take that very, very seriously,” Mullen
responded.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the hearing that he thinks it’s a
matter of when, not if, the law will be repealed. Gates said he’d ordered
a 45-day review of the regulations used to implement the current law in an
effort to find a “fairer way to enforce it.”

He also said he had asked the Pentagon’s chief legal adviser, Jeh Johnson,
and the head of the U.S. Army in Europe, Gen. Carter Ham, to head a panel
to study what steps would be necessary were the ban to be lifted. The
study will take at least a year to complete.

“The mandate of this working group is to thoroughly, objectively and
methodically examine all aspects of this question and produce its finding
and recommendations in the form of an implementation plan by the end of
this calendar year,” Gates said. “A guiding principle of our efforts will
be to minimize disruption and polarization within the ranks, with special
attention paid to those serving on the front lines.”

Mullen, who as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the nation’s
highest-ranking officer, said that he’d served with gay sailors and
soldiers since 1968.

Mullen’s and Gates’ testimonies marked a watershed moment in the long
debate over what the U.S. should do about the prohibition on openly gay
service members, which has been part of U.S. military policy since 1950.

President Bill Clinton sought to eliminate the ban in 1993, but faced with
opposition from both top military officers and Congress, instead issued
the so-called “don’t ask, don’t tell” executive order that guides current
enforcement.

Under that order, military officers aren’t supposed to inquire about
service members’ sexual orientation or seek to know it, while service
members themselves are to keep quiet about it.

The rule also requires officers to act if they learn that a subordinate is
gay.

Since “don’t ask, don’t tell” went into effect, roughly 13,000 service
members have left the military because of the rule.

Tuesday’s hearing was scheduled in response to President Barack Obama’s
call during his State of the Union address last week for ending the ban.
It was easily one of the most contentious hearings either Gates or Mullen
have appeared at since they were appointed to their posts by Republican
President George W. Bush.

As the hearing progressed, Gates’ face grew visibly taut as he listened to
senator after senator admonish him and Mullen for contemplating a change
in policy.

Saying he was “deeply disappointed” in the two men, McCain urged Mullen
and Gates to “keep the impact it will have on our forces firmly in mind.”

Among the Republicans, only Sen. Susan Collins of Maine didn’t attack
Mullen and Gates. Democrats were supportive of the repeal and stepped in
to defend Mullen from the Republican assault.

“You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight,” Sen. Mark Udall,
D-Colo., said after McCain spoke, quoting McCain’s predecessor, Republican
Sen. Barry Goldwater, the Arizona conservative who famously reversed his
opposition to gays in the military in the 1990s.

Despite Mullen’s support, it remains unclear how much of the military’s
top brass favors repealing the ban.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway has said he opposes ending
“don’t ask, don’t tell."

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Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen, right, accompanied by Defense
Secretary Robert Gates, testifies Tuesday during a Senate Armed Services
Committee hearing.

http://tinyurl.com/Admiral-Michael-Mullen

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Lesbian and gay people are a permanent part of the American workforce,
who currently have no protection from the arbitrary abuse of their rights
on the job. For too long, our nation has tolerated the insidious form of
discrimination against this group of Americans, who have worked as hard as
any group, paid their taxes like everyone else, and yet have been denied
equal protection under the law."

- Coretta Scott King