Knocking Down The Walls

Over at the Daily Beast, Jason Bellini sees some major momentum in Congress on finally getting rid of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

After determining she didn’t have enough votes in support of a temporary suspension of the ban on gays in the military, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand tells The Daily Beast she has secured the commitment of Senate Armed Services Committee to hold hearings on “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” this fall. It would be the first formal re-assessment of the policy since Congress passed it into law in 1993.

A statement from the Gillibrand’s office, shared exclusively with The Daily Beast, notes that “265 men and women have been unfairly dismissed from the Armed Forces since President Barack Obama took office.”

Gillibrand’s fast-track proposal for halting DADT, an amendment to the Military Reauthorization Act that would have ordered the Defense secretary to stop investigating gay service members, was never introduced. Even with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressing his support, Gillibrand couldn’t gather the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster, according to a spokesperson.

“I thought it was a long shot from the very beginning,” says Aubrey Sarvis, executive director the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an organization fighting for the end of DADT.

“Clearly one of the positive things that came out of the Gillibrand amendment was that it served as a catalyst for hearings,” he added.

Gay-rights leaders expressed high hopes that Senate hearings could bring reluctant legislators around. According to a recent Gallup poll, 69 percent Americans think gays should be allowed to serve.

“Almost all serious experts who used to argue against allowing gays in the military have either changed course or died,” says Nathaniel Frank, author of Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America.

Charles Moskos, the Northwestern University sociologist who came up with the DADT policy, died last year. He “defended the [DADT] policy to his dying day,” says Frank.

No matter the outcome of Gillibrand’s hearings, the chances of DADT’s repeal look stronger in the House, where Iraq war veteran Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) is taking the lead on a repeal bill called the Military Readiness Enhancement Act. Gay-rights lobbyists say he’s getting close to the 218 votes needed to pass the bill.

I've had my problems with Gillibrand in the past, based on her Blue Dog record as a member of the House. But as a Senator, Gillibrand really has come through and done so in a very surprising way. She has firmly taken the lead in the Senate to get DADT repealed, and has backed Obama on a number of issues. I'm glad to say I've so far been pleasantly surprised by her actions, and she deserves some real credit, especially on DADT.

Having said that, Obama's annoying silence on DADT needs to be broken, especially in light of his Skip Gates comments.