ConvoTracker: Discrimination By Any Other Name Is Still Discrimination

Today we at The Conversationalist are introducing a new weekly feature: The ConvoTracker. Each week a guest blogger will write about a contemporary topic which they think is important and explain why. This week we’re happy to have Emily Rutherford, a sophomore at Princeton majoring in History and American Culture. Emily is a staff writer for Campus Progress and blogs at worthlessdrivel.net.

It’s been years since anyone thought the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy was the compromise it was touted as back when it became law in 1993. A majority of Americans support a repeal of the ban on LGBT servicemembers, and a number of high-ranking military officials such as Colin Powell and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen believe that forcing LGBT servicemembers to lie about who they are doesn’t actually contribute to so-called “unit cohesion.” And yet the latest news out of Washington is that Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants to give DADT one more chance:

Service members threatened with potential discharge under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” may soon be able to breathe easier after Pentagon lawyers complete their assessment on finding a “more humane” way to implement the law.

The assessment, due for completion this week, is taking place because Defense Secretary Robert Gates tasked the Pentagon’s Office of the General Counsel to review the regulations for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to see if the Department of Defense could implement the law in a fairer manner.

After asking last year for a preliminary assessment for what he called a potentially “more humane” policy, Gates announced before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Feb. 2 the review would be complete in 45 days. Earlier this month, Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer, said during congressional testimony the assessment would be finished on or around March 19.

Okay, let’s clear one thing up: there is no “humane” way to implement DADT. None. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is a policy which mandates that LGBT Americans cannot join the military; what is more, it is a policy which mandates that LGBT Americans who are serving their country in the military must be discharged if they are found out–even if they are essential personnel like Arabic translators, and even if they have made enormous sacrifices in the service of their country. Employment discrimination is employment discrimination, no matter whom in what institutions it affects. DADT was a mistake when it was implemented 17 years ago–people were misguided, then, to think that it was an improvement on laws which did ask recruits if they were homosexual before they could enlist. DADT doesn’t ask, but it still closets LGBT soldiers by requiring them not to tell, and that’s not the way to run a military or a country. Let’s hope that the Pentagon finds that there’s no way to obscure the realities of second-class citizenship, because in the meantime soldiers who have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq are being fired from their jobs for doing so while gay.

–Emily Rutherford