Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

The United States Senate took a historic step forward over the weekend as Congress passed a bill to repeal the controversial “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) law, a ban on openly gay persons serving in the U.S. military.

In a statement following the repeal of DADT in the Senate, which voted 65 for versus 31 against the bill, President Barack Obama said, “As Commander-in-Chief, I am also absolutely convinced that making this change will only underscore the professionalism of our troops as the best led and best trained fighting force the world has ever known. ”

While the U.S. House of Representatives had already passed the repeal as an attachment to a Pentagon spending bill earlier this year, this weekend Senate Democrats passed the bill with the help of eight Republicans Senators who crossed the floor.

The passage of the repeal represents both a narrow escape as well as a major victory for Democrats and Mr. Obama. With the 112th Republican-dominated U.S. Congress set to convene in January, the failure to pass the repeal before the end of December would have risked killing off its prospects altogether. Yet the fact that it succeeded will strengthen the hand of Mr. Obama and Democrats who had made it a top policy priority earlier this year.

In particular observers noted that the repeal of DADT would help partially rectify the damage caused to the White House’s liberal support base, which has been stung by the President’s deal with Republicans, earlier this month, to extend tax cuts for the wealthy.

While the repeal’s passage was strongly supported by the military’s top brass, including Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, and an overwhelming majority of service members surveyed by the Pentagon, Mr. Obama said that he recognised that it was important to “responsibly transition to a new policy while ensuring our military strength and readiness.”

Commenting on the passage of the repeal Mr. Gates said, “Once this legislation is signed into law by the President, the Department of Defence will immediately proceed with the planning necessary to carry out this change carefully and methodically, but purposefully.”

He cautioned that it was important that defence personnel understood that while the military’s policy would change following the vote, its implementation and certification process would take place gradually, during which time the current law and policy would remain in effect.

Earlier this year both Mr. Obama as well as Mr. Gates criticised a decision passed by Virginia Phillips, a California federal judge, who ruled that DADT militated against the First Amendment rights of armed service officers and the military should therefore to stop enforcing the law. Subsequently the U.S. Supreme Court stayed Judge Phillips’ order, following a request by the U.S. Justice Department.

The Obama administration has consistently said that it preferred a Congressional repeal of the law to any court-mandated order to that effect, particularly as the former approach would provide the necessary procedural manoeuvrability required to implement the repeal.

The DADT law, which was introduced in 1993 as a compromise to allow gay persons to serve in the military, has reportedly led to over 12,500 members of the armed forces being discharged. In November an official survey found that more than two-thirds of the armed forces in the U.S. “do not object to gays and lesbians serving openly in uniform.”

Labels: Barack Obama, gay ban, military service, U.S. President