Hearing today to tackle policy on gays - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Hearing today to tackle policy on gays

Democrats in Congress hope to ignite debate about the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy Wednesday with the first hearing on the subject since 1993, when President Clinton said gays could serve in uniform if they kept quiet about their sexual orientation.

Presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama has spoken out against the policy.

Without this hearing, said former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman John Shalikashvili, “you will never repeal the law. It’s a great idea.” Shalikashvili is among more than 50 retired generals and admirals who have said it is time to rethink the policy.

The hearing will include former service members but no Pentagon brass. Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell said several military leaders had answered questions at other public hearings.

“Not much has changed on this issue,” he said. “It is still the law of the land. We still honor it as such.”

The hearing comes as the all-volunteer armed forces struggle to retain troops to fight two wars. Polls, such as a Newsweek survey last year that showed 68 percent favor allowing gays to serve openly, point to changing attitudes. Obama has said he would work to repeal a law that bars open service — and the “don’t ask” compromise designed to work around it — if he is elected. His Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, wants no change.

Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee tried to have a hearing on the policy in April 2007, but opposition from conservatives in their party sank the idea.

Since then, “There’s another year in the war,” says Rep. Susan Davis, a California Democrat who heads the military personnel subcommittee. “We want to start a conversation” that could put the issue on a front burner again.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., the lead sponsor of a bill to repeal the policy, would not disclose private conversations with Pentagon officials but said she knows what they would say if they testified.

“The military leadership will tell you that this is the law they’ve been given to operate under and that’s what they do,” she says, “which is a very different question of off-line and off-the-record, ‘Personally, admiral, what do you think?’ That’s the only way they could answer ... differently.”

Gay-rights advocates say they are disappointed at the Pentagon’s no-show.

“At a time when the military is relaxing every possible standard to attract new recruits, and at the same time is losing mission-critical specialists such as Arabic linguists, medical professionals and others, one would hope and expect that Defense Department leaders would be first in line to call on Congress to repeal the law,” says Steve Ralls of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

In 1993, Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the chiefs of the four military branches told a televised hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that “don’t ask, don’t tell” was needed because if gays served openly, they would be a morale-sapping distraction.

The military has booted 12,500 troops under “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Annual discharges peaked at 1,273 in 2001. They declined sharply since the Sept. 11 attacks. The Pentagon discharged 627 service members last year.