UPDATED WITH VIDEO: It’s Friday, April 1st – April Fool’s Day. So some of us might be forgiven for thinking a congressional hearing chaired by Republican South Carolina Rep. Joe “You Lie!” Wilson on oversight of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal implementation might be a joke. But apparently not. This morning the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee heard from Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Dr. Clifford Stanley and Vice Admiral William Gortney, Director of the Joint Staff, and the hearing actually went well, considering – according to Servicemembers United. with so many of you during the Senate Armed Services Committee’s DADT hearings in December, and look forward to tweeting with you again!
Alexander Nicholson, Executive Director of Servicemembers United and a former Army Human Intelligence Collector who was discharged under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ said in a statement:
“Despite the transparent intentions behind the scheduling of today’s oversight hearing on the progress toward ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal, the hearing went very well and revealed smooth sailing for ongoing training and certification preparation. Under Secretary Stanley and Vice Admiral Gortney thoroughly answered all questions regarding the progress of repeal training, and opponents of repeal noticeably struggled to try to get in digs about this inevitable change in policy. Overall, the Department of Defense continues to do an admirable job in deliberately moving forward toward certification and finality on this issue.”
Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper appreciated the remarks from Stanley and Gortney but was “extremely disappointed that certain Congressmen” questioned the military’s leadership:
“As a combat veteran and current Army Reserve officer, I find it offensive that Congressman Allen West (FL) suggests political correctness would trump military order and discipline, as is the comparison of honorable gay and lesbian servicemembers to the dishonrable perpetrator of the 2009 Fort Hood assault. Congressman West’s remarks were an unnecessary and unfortunate distraction from the valuable report by the Repeal Implementation Team. As expected, the repeal process is moving forward smoothly, with deliberation and purpose, and Log Cabin Republicans are pleased to hear that the Department of Defense considers midsummer to be an achievable timeline for certification. The message from today’s House Armed Services Committee hearing is that military leadership is confident about the progress being made toward repeal implementation, that open service will not impact our ability to fight and win wars, and with leadership, professionalism, discipline and respect, ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will end.”
Last week Servicemembers United reported that a review of documents showed that there were 261 discharges under DADT for Fiscal Year 2010. “The annual fiscal year DADT discharge statistic combines the total number of discharges reported by the Department of Defense, which was 250, with the total number of discharges reported by the Department of Homeland Security for the Coast Guard, which was 11,” SU reported. Including discharges of from the National Guard, which is often omitted in the official DOD counts, SU calculates that the total discharges under DADT to date now stands unofficially at approximately 14, 316.
Derek Morado (Photo courtesy GetEQUAL)
Not now included in that number is Petty Officer Derek Morado, a California servicemember who thought it was safe to out himself on Facebook since DADT repeal was signed 100 days or so ago. GetEQUAL and AMERICAblog exposed his threat of discharge and on Thursday night, March 31, the discharge panel voted 3-0 for retention.
Chris Geidner at MetroWeekly has a good story on what happened. In the story, he interviews JS Smith, co-director of OutServe, a group for LGBT servicemembers. Geidner wrote:
[Smith said:] “The fact that everyone knows that the Pentagon hasn’t discharged anyone since Obama signed the repeal law, and yet we are seeing, on the unit level, discharge procedures still going forward — it’s creating an almost harder position for some people.”
Of the consequences of what he described as this two-tier process, “The longer they draw this out, the more confusion this causes,” referring both to gay, lesbian and bisexual servicemembers and heterosexual servicemembers facing training about the repeal of DADT.
“They just need to move certification,” Smith said, “They just need to end this thing.”
Finally – as if to underscore the obvious – LGBT servicemembers are still fighting and dying for this country – and for promised
Casket bearing the body of Cpl Wilfahrt
freedoms we do not yet enjoy. Jeff Wilfahrt, the father of Cpl. Andrew Wilfahrt, whose death I posted about yesterday – left on comment on the site: “Thanks for noticing. He didn’t enlist to get a date.”
SLDN tells servicemembers:
STILL AT RISK: Despite the President signing the bill authorizing repeal of DADT, it is still unsafe for service members to come out until 60 days after certification by President Obama, Secretary Gates, and Admiral Mullen. Warning to service members: www.SLDN.org/StillAtRisk
SLDN FREE HOTLINE: Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender service members with questions are urged to contact the SLDN hotline to speak with a staff attorney: 202-328-3244 x100.
ABOUT SLDN: Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) was established in 1993 when “Don’t Ask” originally passed. In addition to working on repeal, SLDN offers free, confidential legal services to those impacted by the discriminatory law. Last year the organization received its 10,000th call for assistance to its legal hotline.
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