The 17-year battle to allow openly gay and lesbian people to serve in the US military was, for a few days this week, an accepted relic like the battles to desegregate schools or give women the vote.
The president had promised it, the courts had ruled for it, and the Pentagon’s top lawyer accepted it. The proof came when an openly gay man previously discharged under the ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ policy walked into the Times Square recruiting office yesterday without being turned away.
But a few hours ago, the Obama administration was successful in having the gay ban reinstated.
Rarely has a politician so ably demonstrated why voters distrust them. Barack Obama also extended the Patriot Act, kept Guantanamo running, and increased troops in Afghanistan, despite promising to do the opposite in each case.
A few feathers were ruffled in Democratic Party circles when the Department of Justice defended the DADT law when it was first brought to a federal district court by the gay Log Cabin Republicans group. Obama himself defended the action at his MTV appearance saying his hands were tied.
When federal judge Virginia Phillips ordered an immediate halt to all discharges, eight days ago, the military at first continued to reject new applications from openly gay and lesbian candidates. However, without influence from the White House, the Pentagon’s general counsel Jeh Johnson wrote to recruiters allowing such applications for the time being.
Meanwhile, Phillips denied a DoJ request for an immediate stay on her ruling, so they went to the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeal for an administrative stay pending the filing of an appeal. That request was successful, reinstating the gay ban at the Obama administration’s request.
All this week reporters hammered White House spokesman Robert Gibbs to explain how the administration could support the law’s repeal, but fight a court’s decision to overturn it.
“The courts in a number of different instances out west have determined that the lifespan of this policy is coming to its natural end,” Gibbs told the press gallery and reiterated President Obama’s belief that the law will be repealed by Congress in a lame-duck session after the November election.
Gibbs has also refused to answer whether the president, a former constitutional scholar, agrees with the court’s argument that gay discrimination is unconstitutional.
The White House has treated the court case as an obstacle to the repeal strategy it had devised with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen. Under that strategy, the military was told its views would be heard through a 400,000-strong survey and both the Defense Secretary and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would have to agree that unit cohesion was not impaired before the repeal could commence.
Clinton famously underestimated the resistance the Pentagon threw up to the idea of allowing gay and lesbian servicemembers in 1993, leading to the DADT policy as a compromise. Obama’s compromise was to be close military consultation, but less than a quarter of the surveys were completed. The final report from the Pentagon working group is due on December 1.
Senator John McCain has reiterated this week he would filibuster any attempts to repeal the ban. If Republicans take back the Senate on November 2, McCain will become chairman of the Senate’s armed services committee, effectively ending any chance of repeal through congress.
Gay groups have reacted angrily to the increasing strong pushback from the White House on the issue. Even Democratic candidates have pushed back against the White House, including NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, tweeting she was very disappointed at the administration’s appeal.
Army veteran and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network executive director Aubrey Sarvis said the gay ban and the appeals served no useful purpose: “This interim temporary stay means that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is once again on the books, and is likely to be enforced by the Defense Department. Gay and lesbian service members deserve better treatment than they are getting with this ruling.”
Meanwhile, the pro-gay Palm Centre put up a website mocking the claim by Secretary Gates that repealing the ban quickly would have “enormous consequences for our troops”, highlighting that no negative impact was seen over the eight days since the injunction against DADT was first issued.
The best post-deadline comment came from Aaron Belkin, Director of the Palm Center (which speaks for itself):
“The RAND Corporation found seventeen years ago that the best path to allowing open gay service would be to swiftly end the policy and make a clear statement to all branches of the military. The more the courts and politicians treat ending ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ as a vast upheaval of existing policy requiring months of preparation, the further they deviate from the course that has been shown to be best for our service members.”
Harley,
Obama was Kevin Rudd’s hero, and Julia Gillard idolizes him too.
All three of them fail to understand the shift of sentiment in the community here and in the USA on gay rights and gay equality.
Obama’s failure to overturn DADT may cost him a second term.
Julia Gillard’s pig-headedness on gay marriage may cost her the next election.
Voters voted for change here and in the USA. Politicians are returned after they implement change and are turfed out if they lack courage.
We give them Government for a good time, not a long time.
John agree with your sentiments and I firmly believe the Democrats will feel the backlash of the 20 million plus gay vote during next weeks mid term elections. It is a very large vote to alienate
It is also interesting how Hillary Clinton is keeping out of the debate. She has made it very clear where she stands on DADT…strongly against it.
Hillary is by no means out of the running for nomination next time, she is choosing her words very carefully already.
I hacve to say this really is astonishing. It is little wonder that Obama’s supporters from 2008 are so utterly disappointed and unenthusiastic.
Even putting aside what is just it is hard to imagine how this action by the administration could be anything but disadvantageous to the Democrats in the mid-terms.
The whole thing has been mind-bogglingly stupid.
But then, ever since September 15 2008, Obama has been kowtowing to rightwing opinion. Little wonder then that the republicans, who should have been obliterated politically are now resurgent and their most egregious faction — the Tea Party — is driving policy.
Had Obama from the outset adopted a clear and determined policy of social reform and abandonment of Bush-era polcies, the US would be a far different and better place today. When will politicians learn that hypocrisy, policy incoherence, and the appearance of double-dealing are far more costly than taking principled stands on contentious issues. When will they learn that their first job is to get stuff done rather than to be re-elected?
Fran good points. It beggers belief how the influence of the religious right, the media as in Fox and the rest of Murdochs empire, the tea party combatants and the gun toting Annie Oakley of the North, Palin have combined to ensure Obama and his weak administration are mortally wounded in the upcoming mid term vote. Richard Farmer summed it up this way.
[Preparing for the Democrat fall. Before the mid-term Congressional elections in 1982 the Gallup poll recorded only 24% of Americans saying they were satisfied with the way things were going in the country.
On polling day 28 members of the President’s party lost their House of Representative seats. In 1994 with 30% in the satisfied column the losses in seats totalled 53. Since July this year satisfaction as measured by Gallup has registered in a narrow range from 19% to 21%, after descending from a 2010 high of 27% in April.
The latest figure is 21% and unless there is a major change before election day in just under a fortnight that would be the lowest level of U.S. satisfaction Gallup has measured at the time of a midterm election in more than 30 years of tracking this measure.]
As I mentioned earlier, while the great majority of gay votes went to Obama to assist get him elected, those same votes will now, on his gutless refusal to standup to the right, go elsewhere or nowhere. Certgainly not to the Democrats.