Robert Gates, U.S. Defense Secretary, said he urges Congress to repeal the the ban on gays serving openly in the military before new members of Congress take their seats. However, he did not sound optimistic about the current Congress holding a brief session to repeal the ban.
The current, Democratic-controlled Congress has not acted to lift the ban, which President Barack Obama promised to eliminate. In his postelection news conference Wednesday, Obama said there would be time to repeal the ban in December or early January, after the military completes a study of the effects of repeal on the front lines and at home.
Now that the Republicans will be taking control of the House in January, and there are now larger margins in the Senate, those who are in support of no ban, think it will be much more difficult because of certain circumstances. What do you think? Will there be a repeal of the ban, or will it stay in place?
5 comments:
I don't know much about politics, but I do know that DADT is a ridiculous policy that I certainly hope is repealed. Even if the Republicans take control of the House in January, I pray that there are those who fight for the repeal of the ban on gays being able to fight in the military. Someone else posted about the DADT policy a while ago, and so I will just repeat some of the things that I said earlier about that post. First of all, I honestly doubt that being gay affects productivity on the battlefield, which is one of the arguments FOR the ban. Secondly, the military is based on volunteering, and by banning gays from the military, you are also banning potential soldiers who are WILLING to fight for this country, despite the fact that this country does not even grant them all of their rights.
In all, I just hope that the ban is eventually repealed, preferably sooner than later.
Although I agree with Zoe that DADT should be repealed, just to play the devil's advocate, I wonder what the effect of the repeal would do. The military is run with a basis in discipline, partly for the soldiers' safety and for that reason, there are not coed living quarters (please correct me if I am wrong). DADT does not ban gays from the army, maybe it just covers up some potentially awkward situations.
I feel that the DADT policy should be repealed, but i feel that it shouldn't be repealed for certain reasons. Even though gays are willing to serve in the military, i feel that allowing them to fight with soldiers that are not gay will make the situation awkward. I feel that if the military test the repeal of the DADT policy and it works well and doesnt effect our soldiers productivity on the battlefield, then i feel that it should be repealed, but if it effects our productivity then it should stay in place. we will never know what effect it will have if you never tried to repeal the law.
-vernon Wong
We cannot keep DADT just because awkward situations may come up. Can we stop gay people from openly attending schools and colleges because the other students may feel awkward? No! You shouldn't be forced to conceal who you truly are, in any situation.
@ Nichole: It actually does ban gays from serving. If they are discovered to be gay, they are dishonorably discharged from service. @Vernon: What you;re saying is logical and makes sense, but the same exact arguments were made for allowing the integration of blacks into military as well. So I see your intention, but I also think you may be slightly misinformed. I have spoken to many straight soldiers, and many interviews have been conducted with the soldiers in the military. Most of the foot soldiers, the ones actually doing the fighting, tend not to care about the sexuality of the soldier. The one thing they care about is whether or not they are a good soldier. Gay and straight, black and white go away when you're in battle (according to said soldiers) and such identities are irrelevant. @Jesvin: My initial reaction was "that seems a little dramatic. But at second thought, what you're saying makes sense. If we banned people from things to prevent "awkward situations," we have a hell of a lot more discrimination against all awkward people. I'd be screwed. :P
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