President Obama signs repeal of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’

By Calvin Connors Posted January 12, 2011

“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is a policy that started in 1993 that scrutinized gays entering any branch of the military.

A flight nurse was dismissed from the Air Force in 2004 under The “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy. After putting in 18 years for the Air Force she was discharged in October 2007, she was two years short of what she needed for retirement benefits. According to CBSNEWS more than 70 percent of troops who filled out a Pentagon survey on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” said letting gays serve openly would have positive, mixed, or nonexistent effects on service members. (yahoonews.com)

“The repeal of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell could be distracting to the people in the military,” said Mr. Doc Welter a veteran of the US Navy and current vice principal at Lowry.

Congress passed the DADT policy in 1993 under Bill Clinton as president. More than 14,000 service members have been fired since 1994. 73 percent of military personnel are comfortable with gays being in the military. According to Zogby International 2006.

Mr. Sean Wilson. /Courtesy • Winnada
Mr. Sean Wilson. /Courtesy • Winnada

By a vote of 234 to 194, the House of Representatives adopted an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that could lead to the repeal of DADT in early 2011. The Pentagon reports that 75 percent of young Americans are ineligible to serve in our military because of criminal records, weight problems, and inadequate education. (yahoonews.com)

“I think it is a person’s right to do and feel the way they are,” said Mr. Sean Wilson who served in the United States Army for five years and is a math teacher at Lowry.

“Our Defense Department supports repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ as a way to build our all-volunteer armed forces,” Senator Harry Reid said in a statement.

Leland Miller. /Courtesy • Winnada
Leland Miller. /Courtesy • Winnada

“We need to repeal this discriminatory policy so that any American who wants to defend our country can do so,” added Reid. (TVNZ.co.nz). Nearly seven out of ten Marines in a combat role say the DADT policy that doesn’t allow gays from serving openly in the military would harm their units expected effect that is more than any of the military forces. This is according to the Pentagon survey. (nctimes.com)

With the recent results of the Pentagon survey the three branches of the military that repeal DADT were the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The results stated that having openly gay people in those branches would not harm any progress. The Marine Corps was the only branch of the military that was against the repeal of DADT (foxnews.com). Though the branches of the military here in the states are not allowing gays in the military there are other countries that don’t care if gays are in their military forces. Australia, Austria, France, Canada, and Spain are only five of 25 countries that allow gays to serve in the military.

Gays in the military survey. /Courtesy • MCT
Gays in the military survey. /Courtesy • MCT

On December 15, 2010, the House voted to repeal the DADT policy that has been in action for 17 years, the vote ended up 250-175.

Leland Miller, one of the students at Lowry High, is going into the Marine Corps and states that the DADT policy didn’t concern him in any way, and the policy being repealed or not didn’t have an effect on his choice in joining the Marine Corps.

On Wednesday, December 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the law to allow gays to serve in the military after 17 years of frowning upon the policy of DADT.

“I hope those … who’ve been discharged under this discriminatory policy will seek to re-enlist once the repeal is implemented,” Obama said. This according to postcrescent.com.

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