Obama Deserves the Flak on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Poutrage: They didn't get their pony


by Michael Jones
Michael is the Communications Director for the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, and previously was Communications Director for Pax Christi USA, a progressive Catholic human rights organization.

Last week we wrote a piece taking Obama to task over his administration's total and complete silence on marriage equality. Three states have legalized same-sex marriage since Obama took office, yet he hasn't said one word about the issue. Well, except for this past weekend at the White House Correspondents Dinner, where Obama made a joke that he and advisor David Axelrod could go to Iowa and get married.

This past weekend, another sore spot between President Obama and the LGBT population arose - his administration's inability to address the military's discriminatory and archaic "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. National Security Advisor James Jones was on This Week with George Stephanopoulous, and when GS asked Jones whether "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" would be overturned, Jones responded with a very telling "I don't know."

"I don't know." Really, Obama? "I don't know." All throughout the campaign you pledged to overturn this policy, which has kicked out more than 12,000 qualified soldiers from the U.S. military. Throughout the campaign you said, rightly so, that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was a threat to America's national security.

But now your National Security Advisor responds "I don't know" when asked if the policy will be overturned.

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), which works to overturn "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and represents many of the men and women kicked out of the military, had some punchy as harsh words for Obama over the weekend:

Gay and lesbian soldiers continue to get fired on this President's watch, most recently Arabic linguist Army Lt. Dan Choi and 2nd Army Second Lt. Sandy Tsao. At the end of the day, this is what the debate is about-them and their families....

SLDN had hoped this president would offer leadership, not give in to some throw away study or commission. The right approach would be a presidential working group that focuses solely on implementation and reports back to the president with recommendations within 90 days.

Ouch. But you know what? Obama deserves it.

To be clear, this isn't a dismissal of Obama. He may yet prove to be a very LGBT-friendly President. But let's also be honest...during the first 110 days of his administration, Obama has let three historic marriage equality decisions slide by without nary a reference, and now appears to be back-peddling (or at least seriously stalling) any effort to overturn "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." That's not standing up for LGBT rights. Rather, it reeks of a centrist style of governing that's all too willing to throw LGBT issues under a bus for political expediency.

And I, for one, had hoped better of this administration.

http://gayrights.change.org/blog/view/obama_deserves_the_flak_on_dont_ask_dont_tell

Congress deserves action for not moving that bill through committee.

They either should have stood 100% behind it and made the commanders enforce it, or nixed it altogether for being the half-ass program it was.

That's within his power, and he's not willing to do it, consider it, or even talk about it.

That has nothing to do with Congress. Blaming congress, and claiming that only legislation can stop DADT is a cheap way to pass the buck.

He can stop DADT and stop people from losing their military positions TODAY.

Really, this is like blaming Obama for the war on drugs because people are still being arrested for drugs.

No, Obama does not have the power to overturn laws, that's Congress, or the Supreme Court if the law is unconstitutional.

This meme isn't a defense of civil rights, it's a shallow attack on Obama that's exploiting civil rights.

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1) Under the law "the President may suspend any provision of law relating to promotion, retirement, or separation applicable to any member of the armed forces who the President determines is essential to the national security of the United States" during a "period of national emergency." The statute specifically defines a "national emergency" as a time when "members of a reserve component are serving involuntarily on active duty."

Check on that front. How many tours have reservist gone on now?

2) Don't Ask, Don't Tell grants to the Defense Department authority to determine the process by which discharges will be carried out, saying they will proceed "under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of Defense... in accordance with procedures set forth in such regulation."

All President Obama has to do is tell Bob Gates to stop discharging gays and lesbians from the military's ranks.

3) Don't Ask, Don't Tell calls for the discharge of service members "if" a finding of homosexuality is made, but it does not require that such a finding ever be made. According to the study, these provisions mean that the Pentagon, not Congress, has the "authority to devise and implement the procedures under which those findings may be made."

Again, the witchhunts can be stopped; all the President has to do is tell the Pentagon to knock it off.

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/10924/report-obama-can-stop-the-discharge-of-openly-gay-and-lesbian-service-members-now

Obama should move ahead on this one.

yes INDEED

When Obama's surrogates poll on health care they don't even ask if people prefer a single payer system. They say "a governement system'

Don't ask don't tell extends to their polling.

They can claim ignorance.

that Obama's campaign about change and hope was all hype, and he's not the person the campaign made people think they were voting for. :(

It was a pretty lousy bait and switch. The best that I can say is that we got a president who is better than the republican candidate. But we didn't get the best Democrat.

campaign? I'm really curious. Who would have been a better choice than Obama?

they're skewing the poll because the public has been conditioned to respond negatively to the idea of "government run healthcare".

If this is what they're asking, it's dishonest.

"Don't ask, Don't tell?
Don't ask for my vote again!!"

Somebody needs to make some T-shirts and bumper stickers with those words on them.

Don't ask, don't tell?
Don't ask for my vote again!!

But the idea that Obama can't do anything, and that Congress has to do it for him makes people feel good. It gives people an excuse to express their homophobia. It gives people an excuse to defend the idea of delaying or denying our equal rights in the military.

:hi:

with little or no real defense.

I'm kind of thinking he may end up doing big things later but that doesn't mean anything now.

If our Commander in Chief is a big coward, then that tells us much about the state of our military and about our society as well.

Why all this unreasonable fear of gay people? That's the question the Commander in Chief needs to be asking himself.

:kick:

We all know Reagan was bad by not acknowledging AIDS, etc. I'm sure 'ol Ronnie hates the "socialist" Obama, but I bet he's in hell somewhere saying "Good job Barack, you keep those queers in their place."

Reagan? That's ridiculous. I want DADT overturned too but Obama is nowhere near as dangerous to gay rights as the Chimpst*r Administration was. At least Obama is saying the right things, and I still believe that, given time, he will begin to practice what he preaches. But to say he's the most anti-gay since Reagan is absurd.

How quickly we forget.

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:kick:

No one else does. Unless they're on Wall Street...

Yes, I understand he wants it as a bil from Congress so it cannot be later overturned (easily). That's commendable. But why was there not an interim measure in place early?

Like day one.

Is that he has always insisted on bestowing himself with the high title of 'Fierce Advocate of gay rights." Not a supporter, or a plain old advocate, but a 'Fierce Advocate'. Fist off, I am not sure he knows what an 'advocate' is, I never see him advocating for our rights at all. Second, it is just so arrogant to take the hyperbolic path and paint himself with this lavish praise of being a Fierce Advocate. It is as if he thinks that we don't have actual fierce advocates, as if he thinks he's a champion for saying the word 'gay' in a speech.
He wants that status, so he just takes it. Unearned in our community. No one has ever called him a fierce advocate except himself. He's not accomplished anything for the community but the thinning of our check books.

For taking too much credit for nothing but a few words, Obama certainly deserves the heat on this one. He wants to be fierce? Well show me how fierce you are, stop complimenting yourself and start with the advocating.

I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I've seen it used as an excuse in pretty much every thread about what Obama promised to do vs what he's NOT doing. Given the context, I think it's supposed to mean that he's, like, SUPER intelligent, and normal people can't understand how he operates, but sometime between now and, say, 2016, EVERYTHING HE SAID HE WOULD DO WILL BE DONE. And it will happen as if by magic, because while we don't SEE Obama doing ANYTHING about the things he promised, he's really, like, a dozen moves AHEAD of everyone else.

In a nutshell, what looks like cowardice and indifference to dim folk like you and me is, in reality, ultra-smart maneuvering to make this world a tropical paradise. Someday soon we'll all be sitting on a beach drinking pina coladas served by monkey butlers and STILL be trying to figure out how he did it.

Obama knows that having gays serve openly in the military won't make a dime's worth of difference in the overall structure of the military or its morale. On the one hand he does deserve the flak for keeping Don't ask in place. He could easily issue an executive order allowing gays to serve in the military immediately if he wanted to just like Truman opened up the service to blacks. I hope he'll eventually change his mind and begin to follow his own inclinations on the issue.

Excellent Photo!

:kick:

But I think it needs to get pushed ahead a bit in congress.

As in, get some legislation introduced.