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 statutory, stroke-of-the-pen authority to suspend gay discharges. Obama could simply invoke his authority under federal law (10 U.S.C. §12305) to retain any member of the military he believes is essential to national security.
Or he could take advantage of a legal loophole. 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 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 defuse 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.
This misses the point. Obama could sign an executive order today. With roughly three-quarters of the public, including a majority of republicans, in favor of open gay service, a meaningful public backlash is unlikely. A slight majority of service members prefer that the policy be left in place, but polls also show that only a tiny minority of them care strongly about the issue, and that the vast majority of service members are comfortable interacting with gays.
Obama may believe he has nothing to lose by waiting. But what about Dan Choi's career? Is this really the right time to fire military officers who are fluent in Arabic?
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It used to be illegal and even considered a mental disorder and now it's just a new respected lifestyle that government
A basic question is whether it's genetic, environmen
To pass laws that involve marriage may not turn out to be best way to make lifestyle legal and accepted. On the other hand many gay advocates are demanding respect and recognitio
If in the future it turns out that everybody is gay or can be, it can turn out that the persons who helped make it legally accepted were just being sensitive and emotional, what it takes to make social progress in general.
Let's stop justifying his actions in the shadows of what he inherited.
Nonsense.
The US's biggest employer discrimina
And Choi was too good to lose.
This is ridiculous policy was enacted to circumvent an uncomforta
save Dan Choi...we need him and his linguistic talents
it is in the interests of the country
homosexual
If I am missing something that dictates that we leave this policy in place then let me know. The only thing that I can see this policy provides is the safety of those who are gay, in regards to those that mean to do them harm.
Just to clarify something and bring you into 2009, being gay is not a "movement" any more than being "straight" is one either.
TheGoodShe
Your "question,
DADT is obsolete and needs to go, now.
Why would having gay miltary personnel would be worse than having Blackwater mercenarie
Now comes don't ask, don't tell. Obama knows that ending this policy will lose him popularity overall in America, and solidify right wing opposition
Where can Gays and Lesbians turn if they oppose Obama. My answer is nowhere. And Obama knows it. Therefore Obama can engage in discrimina
Write to the White House at http://www
What's equally interestin
A few people will say, "Give him more time." His true character is now clear, however, and I sense that time has run out. Amongst progressiv
I voted for him--that was in 2008, not in 2012--but I won't even listen to his speeches anymore. This is just one more nail in the coffin.
What I as a minority of one does is largely irrelevant
We know what happened in Germany. Does that Weimar II could ever unfold in this country as a scenario? Limbaugh and Cheney certainly believe it could, but you know what? Frankly, at this point, I don't give a dam*ed!
Any dictatorsh
How about choosing NOT to vote when none of the candidates are acceptable to you?
How about having faith that, over time, right prevails over wrong and people do in fact change their minds when confronted with truth and justice. Or, you could be like Buddakan and the other haters who insult others who have the sincere and good-natur
No comment about those poor fools who lost the election and can't get a life.