Momentum to Repeal Gay Military Ban Growing
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Four additional Congressional lawmakers have signed on as co-sponsors of legislation to repeal the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual service personnel in recent days.
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, the group advocating for gays in the military, see that as a sign Congressional opposition to lifting the ban is eroding.
Republican Sherwood Boehlert of New York and Democrats Cynthia McKinney of Georgia, Julia Carson of Indiana and Michael Doyle of Pennsylvania have joined 110 others in Congress in calling for repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Boehlert is the fifth Republican co-sponsor and McKinney joins nine other members of the House Armed Services Committee who are also co-sponsors of the bill (H.R. 1059). In all, 114 Members of Congress now support the legislation, introduced in March 2005 by Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass.
"More and more lawmakers of both parties are increasingly disillusioned by the military’s policy of exclusion and discrimination," C. Dixon Osburn, SLDN executive director, said in a statement to news media.
"Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell undermines our national security and singles out lesbian and gay Americans for second-class citizenship. Service to our country should be based on talent and qualification. SLDN salutes members of Congress who are taking a stand in favor of putting our national interests ahead of anti-gay prejudice. Because of their work on this issue, the days of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell are numbered."
A March 22 poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press showed growing public support for repealing the military’s ban. According to Pew, a majority of Americans across political, geographic and religious lines now favor allowing gays to serve openly. A majority of moderate Republicans (62 percent), liberal Democrats (85 percent), Catholics (67 percent), Protestants (53 percent), those in the Northeast (66 percent) and those in the South (58 percent) support allowing gays to serve openly. The results, Pew reports, "represent significantly broader support for [lifting the ban] than in 1994," when the military’s current law was first implemented. Overall, the Pew poll showed "two-to-one" support for repealing the ban.
Visit www.sldn.org for a complete list of co-sponsors of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act.
