‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ a denial of civil rights

President Obama’s campaign promise to repeal the bigoted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is now looking less and less like a reality.

Michael Prysner testifies at Winter Solder hearing, March 20, 2008

Prior to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” service members would receive “dishonorable” or “undesirable” discharges for their sexual orientation, barring them from VA benefits and the GI Bill and making it difficult to find quality employment. Former President Clinton enacted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in 1993, also after a campaign promise to lift the ban on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people serving in the military.

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” states that LGBT people in the military “create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline.” Service members are prohibited from speaking about their sexual orientation or past relationships. If there is the slightest suspicion that a service member is gay, a full investigation can be initiated into that service member’s sexuality, leading to attempts at humiliation and a disciplinary discharge.

The policy is nothing more than a denial of civil rights; a backwards prejudice that forces individuals—already oppressed and discriminated against in mainstream society—further into a state of fear and alienation.

Included in the Obama administration’s proposal for the new Pentagon budget, the largest in history, is funding to enforce the existing policy. This is the first sign that inequality and bigotry will continue to remain policy in the U.S. military.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has made two public comments recently explaining that LGBT people serving in the U.S. military should not be expecting to see equality anytime soon.

Secretary Gates: ‘Push that one down the road’

Gates said to repeal the law and allow service members to serve openly would be “complex and difficult,” echoing the old anti-gay rhetoric that homosexuality is so offensive that it has no place in public life, and any LGBT individual must live a life of secrecy and shame. The logic goes so far as to say that eliminating discrimination against LGBT service members is a threat to national security.

He went on to say, “That dialog though has really not progressed very far at this point in the administration. I think the president and I feel like we’ve got a lot on our plates right now and let’s push that one down the road a little bit.”

The Obama administration has taken the position that civil rights and ending discrimination can wait. It is the position that ending a legacy of prejudice and hatred can wait.

We say that it cannot wait. It is time that this injustice comes to an end. We demand that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy be abolished immediately, along with any other discriminatory measure. The funds that are allotted to fund the continuation of bigotry should instead be used to fund an effective, mandatory military-wide educational campaign to eliminate anti-gay bigotry from its ranks.

Along with the creation of that program, new laws should be enacted to protect LGBT service members from discrimination and harassment. The military should adopt strict disciplinary measures to enforce those laws. We contend that similar measures are needed to combat racism and sexism in the military.

That is what is needed to achieve true justice and equality—and it is something that can become a reality. But this kind of change will not come from the top, as the Obama administration and its Pentagon generals have indicated. It must come through a fight-back movement of progressive grassroots organizations, and of the powerful force that exists within the military—gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender service members, and their allies, themselves. We call on all service members to take a stand for civil rights by challenging this outrageous law and organizing within the military against it.

Real victories in the struggle for LGBT rights are within our grasp. We must join the movement to demand the right of same-sex couples to marry, the right of LGBT people to adopt children and the elimination of every form of discrimination based on sexual orientation in the country. But this can only be reached through mass unified action. Service members can be a dynamic force in the movement for equality; a force that would no doubt be supported by the movement of students, workers and civil rights and social justice organizations demanding justice for the LGBT community.

As service members in the U.S. military, we should not be fighting these racist, profit-driven wars of aggression. We should be fighting for equality, for civil rights and for progress—and that means fighting against the will of Washington.

Michael Prysner is an Iraq war veteran and member of the Veterans and Service Members Task Force of the ANSWER Coalition. You can visit their website at http://www.thisisnotourwar.org/