Integrity News

Senator Barack Obama was interviewed recently by Mark Segal, publisher of Philadelphia Gay News. Here’s the part where he talks about Don’t ask, Don’t tell:

PGN: The current President Bush has used signing orders to change military rules and regulations. If White House counsel advised you that you could end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” by attaching a signing order to a military appropriations bill, would you?

BO: I would not do it that way. The reason is because I want to make sure that when we reverse “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” it’s gone through a process and we’ve built a consensus or at least a clarity of that, of what my expectations are, so that it works. My first obligation as the president is to make sure that I keep the American people safe and that our military is functioning effectively. Although I have consistently said I would repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” I believe that the way to do it is make sure that we are working through a process, getting the Joint Chiefs of Staff clear in terms of what our priorities are going to be. That’s how we were able to integrate the armed services to get women more actively involved in the armed services. At some point, you’ve got to make a decision that that’s the right thing to do, but you always want to make sure that you are doing it in a way that maintains our core mission in our military.

Well, gee whiz, Barack, don’t you think we’ve been working through a process to get rid of DADT already? And exactly what process do you think we need to go through? A lot of work has already been done. There’s a bill in Congress with lots of cosponsors and the services have already considered homosexuality in writing their regulations that deal with sexual assault, sexual harassment, and other topics. I don’t expect Obama to know what the process should be, so I’ll list the steps we need to take here:

1.) Pass the Military Readiness Enhancement Act.

2.) Sign the Military Readiness Enhancement Act into law.

3.) Allow the Secretary of Defense 90 days to revise current regulations to include the term sexual orientation (as it is written in the Military Readiness Enhancement Act).

3.) Allow the services 180 days to revise their respective regulations to include sexual orientation (as it is written in the Military Readiness Enhancement Act).

4.) Allow any former service member who was discharged under Don’t ask, Don’t tell to rejoin the military if he or she is still qualified.

It’s really that simple, people! It amazes me how much people want to complicate their lives unnecessarily. Gay people are already in the military. That’s not going to change. It’s time we give those gay troops the respect they deserve, and one day longer is one day too long.