White House Sets Record Straight on Gay Ban

SANTA BARBARA, Calif — The following was released today by the Michael D. Palm Center:

Asked today if the White House would consider halting gay discharges by presidential authority, press secretary Robert Gibbs said it would not stop the firing of gay troops. That said, Gibbs insisted that the President believes that the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy “isn’t working for our national interests” and that he “will work with the Joints Chiefs of Staff, the administration and with Congress” to change the policy.

In recent weeks, the President’s national security team has sent mixed messages. Defense Secretary Robert Gates spoke of what action would occur “if” the policy were repealed, suggesting it may not be; and national security advisor James Jones said this weekend he was not sure if the ban would be lifted.

Scholars said that Gibbs’ comments today indicate new leadership from the White House in reassuring the public that “don’t ask, don’t tell” will be repealed. Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at the Palm Center, said that “today’s remarks appear to send a signal to any member of the administration who questions the President’s resolve.”

At the same time, Gibbs’ statement raised questions by gay rights experts about why President Obama, who continues to say he wants the ban terminated, would preside over ongoing discharges when he has authority to end them by executive order. The Palm Center yesterday released a report by a team of scholars and legal experts showing that the president has statutory authority to halt discharges immediately.

Richard Socarides, who worked in the Clinton administration as special assistant to the president on LGBT issues, said that the current president should exercise the short-term options he has to end the ban. “I have long supported and advocated a moratorium on further discharges,” he said today, “and I think it’s well within the president’s discretionary authority to do that immediately.” Socarides said an executive order halting discharges would be consistent with Obama’s stated belief that the policy should end.

The Palm Center is a research institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Center uses rigorous social science to inform public discussions of controversial social issues, enabling policy outcomes to be informed more by evidence than by emotion. Its data-driven approach is premised on the notion that the public makes wise choices on social issues when high-quality information is available. For more information, visit www.palmcenter.ucsb.edu.

Website: http://www.palmcenter.ucsb.edu
Website: http://www.palmcenter.org

Published by

Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/white-house-s…

Study: Obama doesn’t need Congress to halt gay discharges

(Santa Barbara, California) A new study by a team of military law experts asserts that President Obama has the legal authority to end gay discharges through an executive order.

The report, “How to End Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: A Roadmap of Political, Legal, Regulatory, and Organizational Steps to Equal Treatment,” was …

Dragging his feet on DADT: First Gay Arabic Linguist To Be Fired Under Obama

Editior’s note: Dan Choi will be on Rachel Maddow tonight!

Aarob Belkin writes:

“Dan Choi, a West Point graduate and officer in the Army National Guard who is fluent in Arabic and who returned recently from Iraq, received notice today that the military is about to fire him. Why? Because he came out of the closet as a gay man on national television.

Some readers might think it unfair to blame Obama. After all, the president inherited the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law when he took office. As Commander-in-Chief, he has to follow the law. If the law says that the military must fire any service member who acknowledges being gay, that is not Obama’s fault.

Or is it?

A new study, about to be published by a group of experts in military law, shows that President Obama does, in fact, have stroke-of-the-pen authority to suspend gay discharges. The “don’t ask, don’t tell” law requires the military to fire anyone found to be gay or lesbian. But there is nothing requiring the military to make such a finding. The president can simply order the military to stop investigating service members’ sexuality.

An executive order would not get rid of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, but would take the critical step of suspending its implementation, hence rendering it effectively dead. Once people see gays and lesbians serving openly, legally and without problems, it will be much easier to get rid of the law at a later time.

I spent a day with Dan Choi last month, and he is not someone we want to fire from the military. He loves the armed forces. He served bravely under tough combat conditions in Iraq. His Arabic is excellent, and he used his language skills to diffuse many tough situations and to save lives, both Iraqi and American. All of his unit mates know he is gay, and they have been very supportive of him. But he doesn’t want to live a lie.

Obama has been praised for delaying efforts to get rid of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and some major gay rights groups are actively lobbying to delay consideration of the issue. They seem to believe that Obama should focus on other gay-rights issues first, and that he shouldn’t spend his precious political capital trying to ram a repeal bill through Congress.”

See First Gay Arabic Linguist To Be Fired Under Obama

Published by

Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/dragging-his-…

Elderly Gay Couple Regrets Not Marrying

It was 1951 when they fell in love. They’ve been together every since. And now, Bob Claunch and Jack Reavley are wondering whether they made a mistake by not getting married when they had the chance. The two met in the Army, where Reavley was Claunch’s commanding officer, the Los Angeles Times reported. For years, they had to conceal their relationship for fear of being court-martialed. Eventually, both men received honorable discharges.

Today, Claunch, 83, and Reavley, 85, live together in Los Angeles. They are registered domestic partners in California. When same-sex marriage was legalized in California, they decided not to go for it.

See Elderly Gay Couple Regrets Not Marrying AOL News Newsbloggers

Published by

Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/03/elderly-gay-c…

Kansas Guard discharges first gay soldier

he Kansas Army National Guard has discharged its first gay soldier under the federal “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Amy Brian, who served nine years in the Guard, including a stint in Iraq, was investigated and “separated” last month after a civilian co-worker told authorities they had seen her kissing a woman in a Wal-Mart checkout line.

Brian joins almost 12,500 other lesbian, gay and bisexual service members discharged from 1994 to 2007. MORE