Admiral Mike Mullen’s definitely trumping his Joint Chiefs predecessor Peter Pace. Former Chairman Pace, of course, went out on a low note soon after calling gays “immoral.”
Now, less than a year after taking over as head of the military and saying they’re ready for same-sex soldiers, Mullen’s making more homo headway.
From Servicemembers Legal Defense Network:
Speaking at West Point on Sunday, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told graduating cadets that Congress, and not the military, is responsible for the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law banning openly lesbian, gay and bisexual Americans from military service. Admiral Mullen’s answer came in response to a cadet’s question asking what would happen if the next administration were supportive of legislation allowing gays to serve openly.
SLDN executive director Aubrey Sarvis rightfully celebrated the remark: “[They] reflect an attitude shift among the military establishment which has historically discouraged public debate on allowing open lesbian and gay Americans to serve… ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is a federal law. Ultimately repeal must come from the people’s representatives in Congress.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
AlanReeser
It’s about time someone in his position saw things in a professional view and not in a personal view. I was sexually active, but careful and came out toally after retiring from Air Force after 20 years. Under DA/DT, the witch hunts escalated. I would have been canned after a publicly kissing a man.
Bill Perdue
Aubrey Sarvis says “‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is a federal law. Ultimately repeal must come from the people’s representatives in Congress.†That might pass for the truth in a bonehead poli-sci class but in the real world the real truth is that DADT, like DOMA, is a bigoted law signed by Dixiecrat Bill Clinton after passing with crushing majorities of Congressional Democrats. DADT was authored by another reactionary Dixiecrat named Sam Nunn, who now advises Obama.
We should support the civil rights and liberties of GLBT folk in the military without question. They face hazardous duty whether they’re in combat or not because of the virulent homophobia of much of the officer corps, especially those who’ve chosen the superstitious lifestyle of the christian cults.
The military is being bled dry by attrition and mismanagement by Bush and Cheney of the war, who are supported by the prowar votes of virtually all most Democrats and by their pigheaded refusal to impeach these felons. The Democrats are betraying the ‘end the war’ pledge they made to get elected in 2006.
All three candidates have pledged to keep troops there at least through 2013. Most of the change in the military’s approach to DADT is based on the mauling the military’s getting at the hands of Iraqi insurgents. As of Tuesday, May 06, 2008 29,978 GI’s have been wounded, nearly half of them seriously, and 4,072 have been killed. Estimates place the numbers of Iraqis murdered by the invasion at over 1,000,000. The only light that Petraeus and Cheney see at the end of the tunnel is another IED going off.
The military needs cannon fodder.
Those of us in the antiwar movement are going to do our best to discourage GLBT youth, as well as everyone else, from enlisting for the genocide in Iraq. We already lose far more than our share to violent assaults and murders by bigots, to suicide and to self destructive addictions in including smoking and alcoholism. We don’t need to lose any more young women and men to combat, suicide or posttraumatic stress disorders.
Leland Frances
I see nowhere that Mullen ever said/implied/hinted/winked/groped himself that they were “ready for same-sex soldiers.†Only that he was open to such a change if that’s what public/Congress mandated. Even then, there will have to be some kind of mandated anti-homophobia classes similar to the “race relations” classes they have now.
While we certainly must leverage every opening we can, the General is disingenously recycling the shameful “Don’t Blame Us†argument that Colon [sic] Powell made on “Meet the Press†less than a year ago.
In fact, while Congress did indeed pass the law, it was then Joint Chiefs Chairman Powell and other brASS that first led the charge against President Clinton’s plan to open the military to out gays.
“Before Clinton had been in office one week, the Joint Chiefs had threatened to resign in protest against any new leniency toward gay men and lesbians in the armed services. In their initial meeting with Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, and to a lesser extent in their first meeting with President Clinton, the Joint Chiefs objected to Clinton’s proposed changes so vehemently and at such length that the press understood them to have issued a veto. …the Join Chief were engaging in political action verging on insubordination.†– “Don’t: A Reader’s Guide to the Military’s Anti-Gay Policy†by Janet E. Halley.
“The Joint Chiefs had always been dead set against change. And they remained so throughout days of intense negotiations in windowless rooms in the Pentagon. Indeed, they treated the entire debate like a national emergency. Amid discussions with Aspin, they met three times on July 2, more than anyone remembers their convening in one day during the entire Vietnam War. One chief referred to homosexuals as ‘fags’, and the Marine Corps Commandant, General Carl Mundy, passed out antigay video tapes at meetings. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Colin Powell, while talking cooperation with the White House, instigated behind-the-scenes opposition to the President. In a speech in Annapolis, he had told sailors he would understand if they chose to resign in the event that they ultimately disagreed with the President’s decision.†– “Time†magazine, July 26, 1993.
Powell said in his testimony before Congress in 1992, “to introduce a group of individuals who—proud, brave, loyal, good Americans—but who favor a homosexual life-style, and put them in with heterosexuals who would prefer not to have somebody of the same sex find them sexually attractive, put them in close proximity, ask them to share the most private of their facilities together, the bedroom, the barracks, latrines, the showers, I think that’s a very difficult problem to give the military. …It would be prejudicial to good order and discipline to try to integrate [open homosexuals] into the current military structure.â€
Reinforcing the obvious bigotry of his reference to “life-style,†Powell often expresses his willful stupidity this way when comparisons are made with black civil rights: ““Skin color is a benign non-behavioral characteristic. Sexual orientation is perhaps the most profound of human behavioral characteristics. Comparison of the two is a convenient but invalid argument.â€
A pox on Powell’s house and his historical revisionism. Bravo, nonetheless, to Mullen for his flexibility—which would make Pres. Obama’s job easier given that he recently said that being opposed to DADT would NOT be a “litmus test†for his Joint Chiefs. Historical note: candidate Gore said in 2000 it would be for him.