Posted on 06/26/2009 8:43:12 PM PDT by jazusamo
Service members and veterans will be marching to the White House on Saturday afternoon to urge President Obama to take action on the repeal of a controversial law which bans openly gay people from serving in the military.
Obama committed during the presidential campaign to repeal the Clinton-era law known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
However, Obama and Pentagon leaders have not yet taken any steps to repeal that law, despite strong pressure from gay-rights advocates and a growing push from members of Congress. Congress will write the legislation repealing the ban, but lawmakers are waiting for a cue from the White House.
There will be 265 people marching to the White House – a symbol of the number of service members, as of the event's planning, discharged under the controversial law since Obama took office in January.
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to repealing the law, is organizing the march. On Friday evening, the group's website counter had risen to 267 service members discharged.
“As long as the president remains silent on DADT repeal, men and women in the military will continue to be fired at a clip of two per day on average. The sense of urgency is palpable,” the organization said in a statement.
The march comes after a week in which 77 lawmakers wrote to Obama urging him to suspend the investigation and discharge of military personnel because of their sexual orientation.
“We urge you to exercise the maximum discretion legally possible in administering don't ask, don't tell until Congress repeals the law,” the lawmakers wrote to Obama on Monday.
On Thursday, freshman Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.) challenged and urged House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton to take action on already existing legislation—the Military Readiness Enhancement Act—which repeals the ban.
As a consequence, Skelton -- who played a major role in crafting Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” -- promised to hold hearings to weigh the implications of a repeal.
However, his Senate counterpart, Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who supports a repeal, was noncommittal on Thursday and shifted the burden entirely onto the White House.
“It requires presidential leadership. This cannot be addressed successfully without that kind of leadership,” Levin told reporters at a press conference on Thursday.
“It’s going to take some real kind of preparation inside of the services for us to successfully deal with that question.”
He said he hoped Defense Secretary Robert Gates would conduct a survey inside the military services to get the attitudes of the members of the military.
“These attitudes change all the time,” Levin said.
Gay-rights activists have been pressing the White House to align Pentagon leaders with Obama's goal to repeal the controversial ban on gays serving openly in the military.
Supporters of the repeal have pointed out that Obama's senior military team has not been in line with the president's decision to overturn the policy.
Obama's top military adviser Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently said that the Pentagon would comply if Congress repeals the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, but added the U.S. armed forces are already stretched thin fighting two wars.
Pressed for his personal view, Mullen declined to provide it. "My view, quite frankly, isn't important here."
Gates said recently that if the ban were lifted, it would be difficult for the military to restructure its units to accommodate homosexuals.
Meanwhile, national security adviser James Jones, a retired Marine general, also has reacted coolly to the prospect of lifting the ban, arguing that "we have a lot on our plate right now."
Pentagon officials favor a measured and deliberate way of analyzing the implications of a repeal.
The march, beginning at 2 p.m. in Farragut Square, takes place on the weekend of the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots — one of the defining moments that marked the start of the gay-rights movement in the United States.
Gee, can’t wait to see how our wuss in chief responds to this.
LOL! Good one.
I’d bet Zer0 won’t have much of a response, he’s been awful quiet on this.
It would be a real hoot if the FBI and the Pentagon sent some guys down there to check the military I.D.s and DD214s of the “service members and veterans.” I imagine 95% of them would be hauled off to jail.
One more reason Romney shouldn’t get within a hundred miles of the White House.
#2 - Homosexuals are overplaying their hand pushing this crap. Notice that Congress won't do anything unless the WH does something, and vice-versa. Dems KNOW that this is a losing issue and will backfire big-time.
#3 - The leftist agenda is in full front for all of America to see. You voted for it, you got it. Take a good look at what happens when radical, socialist Democrats assume power.
Great post, thanks
Agree completely and you’re exactly right saying Congress wants nothing to do with it.
Afterwards, they will all have a communal shower and return to their barracks for some serious morale boosting.
Yuck.
Yuck is an understatement! LOL!
Thanks, I know it may be tiresome to some if they see it more than once or if they think that is doesn’t pertain to the thread but as you and I know Romney is a real threat to conservatism and it is important that on a thread about something as outrageous as this that people learn that Romney is a soul mate of these exact leftist goals.
What's there to accommodate? You do your job or get kicked out. Period. Keep your genitals to your self.
Why do homos want to serve in the military? Except for the close proximity to other males, it just doesn’t seem the place for them and their ideology.
I guess they want to assert their rights but in the military ones rights are curtailed. Don’t ask, don’t tell prevents them from saying “here I am whether you like it or not,” it’ll be a sad day when it’s dropped and it will happen eventually.
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