Blog: Repealing DADT

Statement

As many of you know, I'm running for the United States Senate in Illinois to fill the seat once held by our President. I'd like to touch today on the subject of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." I was the first candidate in this race to announce my support for full marriage equality, and the first to announce my vigorous opposition to DADT.

I'm heartened to see the administration address the need to repeal the policy. It's a discriminatory, ineffective policy that should have been repealed years ago.

The subject of repealing DADT, however, has sparked the ire of conservatives, from John McCain and Sarah Palin to my opponent, Republican Congressman Mark Kirk.

Just this weekend, appearing on FOX News, Sarah Palin chastised the President for even addressing the issue:

PALIN: I don't think so right now. I'm surprised that the President spent time on that in his State of the Union speech when he spent only about 9 percent of his time in the State of the Union on national security issues. And I say that because there are other things to be worried about right now with the military. I think that kind of on the back burner, is sufficient for now. To put so much time, and effort, and politics into it, unnecessary.

Sarah Palin's statement highlights the fallacy underlying conservative opposition to a DADT repeal. Contrary to the right-wing spin, the repeal of DADT is indeed a national security issue.

Lawrence Korb at the Center for American Progress has outlined how DADT has actually made us less safe:

Since 1994, the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy has resulted in the discharge of more than 13,000 military personnel across the services including approximately 800 with skills deemed 'mission critical,' such as pilots, combat engineers, and linguists. These are the very specialties for which the military has faced personnel shortfalls in recent years.

The fact that our military is ridding itself of mission critical personnel on the basis of pure discrimination is appalling, immoral, and puts our nation at risk.

But regardless of the impact DADT has on our national security, my opponent, Republican Congressman Mark Kirk, believes the policy "has worked out well":

[Kirk] supports continuing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays serving in the military.

"I think it's worked out well," he said. "Keeping that all out of the workplace makes common sense."

No, Congressman. It hasn't "worked out well" and it makes no sense whatsoever to force brave Americans to conceal their sexual orientation in order to wear a uniform for their country. And while it's not surprising that Congressman Kirk agrees with Sarah Palin on this issue (after all, he has tried to get her endorsement), our troops and our nation deserve better.

I wholeheartedly agree with former Secretary of State Colin Powell when he says DADT needs to be repealed. And I completely agree with Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in favor of a DADT repeal:

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 ... Allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do."

It is indeed the right thing to do, which is why it should have been done a long time ago.

Of all the items I've read on DADT, one piece has particularly stayed with me. It is the obituary of Army Maj. Alan G. Rogers. Rogers was killed by a makeshift explosive device in Baghdad nearly two years ago. He served in the Persian Gulf War and was on his second tour of duty when he was killed.

Rogers was gay. There was no mention of his sexual orientation in his obituary, and his death later sparked a vigorous debate about DADT and the media's coverage of the issue.

Whatever the media fury in the weeks after his death, his obituary tells of a man of valor, brilliance, and dedication to his family and his country. And what struck me about the entire episode wasn't the fact that he was gay, or the media firestorm about that topic. Rather, it's what his commanding officer wrote to his family that I remember most: "As God would have it, he shielded two men who probably would have been killed if Alan had not been there."

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is a fundamentally flawed policy that should have been repealed yesterday. As I've made clear since the beginning of my campaign:

Brave men and women who are willing to fight and die for our country should be asked only one question: can they do the job?

Those who currently serve under this discriminatory policy can not only do the job--they do it well, and we need them to continue to do so without fear of reprisal. For their sake, and for the sake of our national identity as a country founded on justice, DADT must be repealed as soon as possible.

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