ACTION ALERT!! DADT rally on Friday!!

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network will be hosting a Washington, DC rally this Friday. The event is a call to the Senate to keep working until “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal is brought to the floor.“Senators must not be allowed to hide any longer behind process, procedure, and tax cuts for the wealthy, while the discrimination continues,” said Aubrey Sarvis, the organization’s executive director. “We’ve lost 14,000 troops to this antiquated law, and by God, we must not lose another on our watch.”

Numerous other LGBT political groups will be joining SLDN for the 12 noon rally. If you are in the area, and have time, get out there and make your voice heard.

The White House and Senate majority leader Harry Reid continue to express confident that DADT repeal can get a lame duck vote. This positivity stands in stark contrast to the Senate schedule (Christmas break starts on December 17) and Republican road blocks.

“The White House remains fully committed to passage of the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act], including the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, during the lame duck,” said White House spokesperson Shin Inouye. “This is a priority for the President, and are we confident that the Congress will be able to address this issue this year.”

For this to happen there must be a final push. Call your senator. Have your friends call, even those you secretly loathe. Make your great aunt pick up the phone. If she refuses, threaten to kill her annoying cat. If she’s a dog owner, leave it be. Dogs are God’s creatures.  Tell your office mates to call, including the one who keeps taking all the paper clips.

Anonymous Active-Duty Gay Officer Speaks

JDSmithOutServex390 (Screengrab) | Advocate.com

“JD Smith,” an active-duty gay officer and cofounder of the group OutServe, spoke with Rachel Maddow following the first day of Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on the Pentagon report about “don’t ask, don’t tell” repeal.

During the interview Smith, who appeared with a shielded identity, commented on the difference between the acceptance of troops on the ground and the military leadership, which can be more resistant to gays serving openly. 

Watch the conversation by clicking the link above.

Operation Shoebox - Alliance For Full Acceptance, South Carolina

Just FYI, on some service projects:

Tonight AFFA began Operation Shoebox, collecting shoeboxes filled with necessities and “goodies” for servicemembers overseas during the holidays. This year we are sending to a National Guard unit from Charlotte in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We need more shoeboxes—shipping date is Tuesday morning!

Last year, one of the recipients returned and participated in our Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell panel in May.


Two years ago we received an email from a lesbian who said that the response from her unit was so positive after they had received these gifts from a LGBT/straight ally group in Charleston—she no longer felt the need to constantly watch over her shoulder.


Three years ago it was a note saying that while they had received other support at the holidays, the shoeboxes from Charleston made a great impact.


For more information on what to include: 

http://affa-sc.org/affa/Operation%20AFFA%20Shoebox.pdf 

Contact the AFFA office if you can get shoeboxes in by Monday at 5 PM! info@affa-sc.org 

McCain calls study on gays in military flawed

Directly challenging the Pentagon’s top leadership, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain on Thursday snubbed a military study on gays as flawed and said letting gays serve openly would be dangerous in a time of war.

McCain’s opposition foreshadows the upcoming Senate debate on a bill that would overturn the 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, which bans gays from serving openly in the service.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has promised a vote, but McCain has helped to block previous debate on the Senate floor.

Further dimming chances of repeal this month was a recent agreement among Senate Republicans not to vote on any bill before addressing tax cuts and government spending.

Advocates of repeal had hoped that this week’s Pentagon study would have lessened GOP resistance to the bill. The study found that the overwhelming majority of troops were not against seeing the policy repealed.

But among those who did care, most were troops performing combat arms duties. Nearly 60 percent of those in the Marine Corps and in Army combat units said they thought repealing the law would hurt their units’ ability to fight on the battlefield.

McCain seized on this finding to argue that forcing such a substantial personnel policy change in a time of war would be wrong for the military and the country. He also criticized the study for scrutinizing only how the law could be repealed, instead of whether doing so would benefit the military.

“At this time, we should be inherently cautious about making any changes that would affect our military, and what changes we do make should be the product of careful and deliberate consideration,” McCain said.

McCain’s statement was directly challenged by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the military’s top uniformed officer who chairs the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Repeal of the law will not prove unacceptable risk to military readiness,” Mullen told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Unit cohesion will not suffer if our units are well-led. And families will not encourage their loved ones to leave the service in droves.”

Mullen also said that Congress should act before the courts do, and that wartime is an ideal time for repeal.

“War does not stifle change; it demands it,” he said. “It does not make it harder; it facilitates it.”

McCain has previously suggested that Mullen’s opinion didn’t matter as much as other military commanders because he doesn’t directly lead troops.

In his opening statement, Mullen seemed to issue a direct challenge to McCain.

“For more than 40 years, I have made decisions that affected and even risked the lives of young men and women,” Mullen said. “You do not have to agree with me on this issue. But don’t think for one moment that I haven’t carefully considered the impact of the advice I give on those who will have to live with the decisions that advice informs.”

Marine Gen. James Cartwright, the No. 2 officer on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview that if Congress fails to act the military could handle an abrupt about-face mandated by the courts.

He like the other Pentagon leaders said that is by far the second choice, and would be disruptive for forces currently cycling through the military’s tightly planned rotation for wartime deployment.

“Bringing this into force quickly means that we have to do some of this in the battlefield. Probably doable, but it’s a bigger challenge than we really want to have to take,” Cartwright said.

Cartwright and the military chiefs of each service will testify before the same Senate panel on Friday. The focus will be on Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos because of the survey results showing high opposition to repeal among Marine combat troops.

“I cannot speak for him but I will speak as a Marine,” Cartwright said. “If the law is repealed the Marine Corps will lead the education, training, and bringing it in,” he said. “They will comply with the law, no doubt about it, and they will comply with the law aggressively.”

Lesbian nurse expects Air Force reinstatement

A lesbian flight nurse who was discharged under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy said Tuesday she hopes to be reinstated to the Air Force Reserve in December.

A federal judge ruled two months ago that Maj. Margaret Witt’s firing advanced no legitimate military goals and thus violated her rights. He ordered her to be reinstated, and while the Air Force filed an appeal last week, it did not seek a stay to block Witt from rejoining her unit at Joint Base Lewis-McChord while the appeal proceeds.

Though the Department of Justice could still seek such a stay, it informally told Witt’s legal team Monday that it probably won’t, one of Witt’s lawyers said.

“All I ever wanted to do was be there for the troops and other medics when they needed me,” Witt said at a news conference Tuesday. “I hope our elected leaders will repeal this unjust policy and that soon I’ll be known as a flight nurse again, instead of a lesbian flight nurse.”

The news conference at the Seattle office of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington coincided with the Pentagon’s release of a much awaited study on the effect of doing away with “don’t ask, don’t tell.” The 1993 law prohibits the military from inquiring about the sexual orientation of troops but requires the discharge of those found to be engaging in homosexual activity. The survey found that about two-thirds of troops don’t care if the ban on gay service members is lifted.

Witt, 46, was suspended in 2004 and subsequently discharged after the Air Force learned she had been in a long-term relationship with a civilian woman. She sued, and in 2008, an appeals court panel held that for the government to discharge gays it must prove that their firings further military goals.

The appeals court sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton in Tacoma. Following a six-day trial at which several of Witt’s former colleagues testified, Leighton held that her firing actually hurt morale in her unit. He ordered that she be reinstated as soon as possible.

The Air Force said last week it would consider returning Witt to her unit, the 446th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, if she met requirements for serving as a reserve flight nurse – 180 hours of nursing time in the past year plus a fitness exam.

“Until those prerequisites are met, we can’t bring her back on duty,” Lt. Col. Anna Sullivan, spokeswoman for the 446th Airlift Wing, said Tuesday.

But Witt’s attorneys, led by Sarah Dunne of the ACLU of Washington and Seattle lawyer James Lobsenz, disagreed. The judge’s order specified that Witt “must meet the proficiency requirements to the same extent and in the same manner that other flight nurses in the 446th have” – and other flight nurses typically report their annual hours early in the following year.

Witt said Tuesday she has put in 130 hours this year and expects to complete the 180 hours in December. She had hoped to be reinstated in time to participate in her unit’s next on-duty weekend, but that seemed unlikely, since it is scheduled for this weekend.

Witt said she expects to rejoin her unit in January at the latest.

Witt served in the Air Force and Air Force Reserve for 18 years and was discharged shortly before she would have been eligible for retirement benefits. She earned a medal from President George W. Bush for delivering “outstanding medical care” to injured service members while deployed to Oman in support of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. Witt received another medal in 2003 for saving a Defense Department employee who collapsed aboard a flight from Bahrain.

Many of the people Witt served with are no longer in the unit. But Witt said some newer reservists whom she hasn’t met have sent her notes saying they’re excited to serve with her.

Most Americans Support "Out" Service Members

PUBIC OPINION PENTAGON MILITARY DON'T ASK DON'T TELL DADT X390 (PHOTOS) | ADVOCATE.COM

It’s official. The majority of Americans support the open service of gays and lesbians in the military, backing the Pentagon’s Tuesday report that found repealing DADT would present a low risk to the armed forces.

The New York Times’ blog FiveThirtyEight reports that public opinion on gay men and lesbians serving in the military falls into three categories. The first holds that gays and lesbians should be able to serve openly, the second holds that gays and lesbians can serve as long as they “don’t tell,” and the third holds that they should not be able to serve at all.

When “don’t ask, don’t tell” was first established, none of the three positions had majority support among Americans. 

“Today, one position has emerged as the clear preference of the majority of Americans,” FiveThirtyEight reports. “Seventy-five percent of Americans support open service, 17 oppose any service, and only 8 percent support the compromise position of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’”

Groups hope Pentagon study on gays sways Congress

Gay rights advocates said Thursday they hoped Congress will be moved to repeal the law known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” after a Pentagon study found it could be done with little harm to the military.

The Senate is expected to vote next month on ending the 17-year-old legislation barring gays from serving openly in the armed forces. Several senators, including Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Jim Webb, D-Va., have said they wanted to see the study’s findings before deciding how to vote.

“These results confirm what those of us who actually know the modern military, especially the rank-and-file troops, have said all along: The men and women of America’s armed forces are professionals who are capable of handling this policy change,” said Alexander Nicholson, executive director of Servicemembers United.

Repeal opponents shot back, saying the group leading the study, which has not been released publicly, was biased and that selected details were leaked to the media this week in an effort to drum up public support for repeal.

“It’s laughable to argue that people who anonymously leak one-sided information to a reporter are less likely to mischaracterize the findings of a 10-month study than are people who wait to read that 370-page study in full,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates ordered the review in February, calling change inevitable but saying the study was needed to prepare for an orderly transition to open gay service.

The internal assessment concluded that repeal carries little risk, with more than 70 percent of troops saying that allowing gays to serve openly would have positive, mixed or no results, according to an official familiar with the report’s findings. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the report won’t be released publicly until after Dec. 1.

It long has been expected that most troops who oppose repeal are assigned to so-called combat arms duties, such as infantry.

Some officials have warned that even scattered resistance to the change could pose problems for field commanders because combat troops often are forced to live in close quarters.

According to The Washington Post, 40 percent of Marines expressed concerns about lifting the ban.

Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, said she believes opponents of repeal inside the military represent “the tip-of-the-spear troops whose views should be given heavier weight, but won’t be.” The group opposes lifting the ban.

Because the leaks have emphasized support rather than opposition to repeal, the Pentagon “seems to be actively trying to manage perceptions in order to distract attention from details in the report that will contradict the headline President Obama wants,” she said.

Gay rights advocates called the objections raised against repeal groundless.

“No one should be surprised if a vocal minority, for a short window, might object, as a minority did when segregation in the ranks ended and women were admitted to the service academies,” said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. “In the military, you get over your objections or you get out.”

Gay rights groups previously had dismissed the Pentagon study because of its methodology. Servicemembers United said this summer that the survey was “biased, derogatory and inflammatory” because it assumed troops would object to serving alongside someone who was openly gay.

Nicholson said he still believes the study was biased, but its results prove that there is little resistance to changing the law among troops.

“Had the survey been completely unbiased, it is likely that we would be seeing even higher numbers in our favor,” he said.

Who Leaked Pentagon DADT Study?

ROBERT GATES 1 X390 | ADVOCATE.COM

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has launched an investigation into a leak of the Pentagon Working Group study’s results on “don’t ask, don’t tell,” scheduled for official release on December 1.  

“The secretary strongly condemns the unauthorized release of information related to this report and has directed an investigation to establish who communicated with the Washington Post or any other news organization without authorization and in violation of Department policy and his specific instruction,” Gates’s press secretary, Geoff Morrell, said in a Friday statement.

Details of the study, according to a Thursday report by the Washington Post, found that the majority of service members surveyed said that ending DADT would have minimal risk on readiness and unit cohesion in the armed forces.

Read the AFP story here. 

Stop Reading Defense Sec. Robert Gates’ Personal DADT Diary, You Guys

Defense Sec. Robert Gates is sad face about the leaked results from the Pentagon’s DADT survey, because it’s now “undermining the integrity of this process.”

Which is a funny thing to say, because asking people whether they are going to throw up if they knowingly shower with a gay person never struck us as having much integrity. “The Secretary strongly condemns the unauthorized release of information related to this report and has directed an investigation to establish who communicated with the Washington Post or any other news organization without authorization and in violation of Department policy and his specific instruction,” reads a statement from the Pentagon, which is launching a formal investigation into the leak.

“The full report will be made public for all to review early next month. Until then, no one at the Pentagon will comment on its contents.” Sounds like a challenge to WikiLeaks if there ever was one!

Pentagon Sued Over DADT Separation Pay

DADT X390 (PHOTOS.COM) | ADVOCATE.COM

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon over a policy that cuts separation pay in half for service members who have been honorably discharged because of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

According to The Washington Post, the ACLU suit represents former Air Force staff sergeant Richard Collins, who wants to receive the same separation pay as other service members forced to leave.

“At issue is a Defense Department policy that cuts in half the separation pay of service members who have been honorably discharged for being gay after at least six years of service,” reports the Post. “The policy began in 1991, two years before the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy was formalized, and could be changed without Congressional approval.”

Collins was honorably discharged in 2006 after nine years of service for violating the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. He received $12,351 in separation pay while he expected to receive $25,702.

Sens. Lieberman, Udall, Gillibrand: Court Decision Killing DADT Would Be ‘Disruptive To Our Troops’

A new statement from Sens. Joe Lieberman, Mark Udall, and Kirsten Gillibrand presses the Senate to “act immediately” to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t tell, lest those pesky courts make the Pentagon’s decisions for them: “a federal judge may do so unilaterally in a way that is disruptive to our troops and ongoing military efforts.”

Now we all know these senators want DADT dead, but now they’ve just gone and sided with President Obama that it is the lawsuits that are actually harming the military.

Breaking: Log Cabin Republicans Asks Supreme Court To Toss Out 9th Circuit’s DADT Stay, Immediately Halt Discharges

In an emergency request to reverse the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2-1 decision to grant a stay, thus blocking Judge Virginia Phillips’ injunction of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the Log Cabin Republicans are asking the Supreme Court to toss out the stay and keep DADT from being enforced while the government appeals the decision.