Archive for the GLBT Category

A federal judge in California has ruled that the US Military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy — which bars gay military personnel from disclosing their homosexuality — is a policy that violates the rights of gays and has been deemed unconstitutional. That is, according to the federal court, the policy cannot stand as law in accordance with the US Constitution — the highest law in the land. While an immediate repeal of the policy will not happen, this is an amazing big step towards the end of this anti-gay military policy:

The “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy toward gay members of the military is unconstitutional, a federal judge in California ruled Thursday. Judge Virginia A. Phillips of Federal District Court struck down the rule in an opinion issued late in the day. The policy was signed into law in 1993 as a compromise that would allow gay and lesbian soldiers to serve in the military. The rule limits the military’s ability to ask about the sexual orientation of service members, and allows homosexuals to serve, as long as they do not disclose their orientation and do not engage in homosexual acts. The plaintiffs challenged the law under the Fifth and First Amendments to the Constitution, and Judge Phillips agreed. “The don’t ask, don’t tell act infringes the fundamental rights of United States service members in many ways,” she wrote. “In order to justify the encroachment on these rights, defendants faced the burden at trial of showing the don’t ask, don’t tell act was necessary to significantly further the government’s important interests in military readiness and unit cohesion. Defendants failed to meet that burden.” The rule, she wrote in an 86-page opinion, has a “direct and deleterious effect” on the armed services. The plaintiffs argued that the act violated the rights of service members in two ways. First, they said, it violates their guarantee of substantive due process under the Fifth Amendment. The second restriction, the plaintiffs said, involves the free-speech rights guaranteed under the First Amendment. Although those rights are diminished in the military, the judge wrote, the restrictions in the act still fail the constitutional test of being “reasonably necessary” to protect “a substantial government interest.” The “sweeping reach” of the speech restrictions under the act, she said, “is far broader than is reasonably necessary to protect the substantial government interest at stake here.” The decision is among a number of recent rulings that suggest a growing judicial skepticism about measures that discriminate against homosexuals, including rulings against California’s ban on same-sex marriage and a Massachusetts decision striking down a federal law forbidding the federal government to recognize same-sex marriage. It will not change the policy right away; the judge called for the plaintiffs to submit a proposed injunction limiting the law by Sept. 16th. The defendants will submit their objections to the plan a week after that. Any decision would probably be stayed pending appeals. The suit was brought by the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay organization. The group’s executive director, R. Clarke Cooper, pronounced himself “delighted” with the ruling, which he called “not just a win for Log Cabin Republican service members but all American service members.” … As a candidate for president, Senator Barack Obama vowed to end “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Once elected, he remained critical of the policy but said it was the role of Congress to change the law; the Justice Department has continued to defend the law in court. In February, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asked Congress to allow gays to serve openly by repealing the law. The House has voted for repeal, but the Senate has not yet acted … The case, which was heard in July, involved testimony from six military officers who had been discharged because of the policy. One, Michael Almy, was an Air Force major who was serving his third tour of duty in Iraq when someone using his computer found at least one message to a man discussing homosexual conduct. Another plaintiff, John Nicholson, was going through training for intelligence work in the Army and tried to conceal his sexual orientation by writing to a friend in Portuguese. A fellow service member who was also fluent in that language, however, read the letter on his desk and rumors spread throughout his unit. When Mr. Nicholson asked a platoon sergeant to help quash the rumors, the sergeant instead informed his superiors, who initiated discharge proceedings.

You can read the entire 86-page ruling HERE. Woot!! This is another great day in the advancement of gay rights in this country. It is my hope that this ruling will signal the final death knell for this very un-American US policy. What kills me most about the cases that forced the issue here is that the military service personnel were abiding by the heinous policy and were doing everything they could to conceal who they are as gay persons … it was the interference of others that outed them to the military and subsequently forced their removal from active military service. Even when gays are compliant in denying and lying about who they are, they can still be punished for being who they are. While I’m confident the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy will eventually be repealed I’m very curious to see how long it will take. Will the US government move quickly to uphold this federal ruling or will they fight to oppose the ruling, thereby extending the unfair treatment of our brave gay US military personnel longer? I sincerely hope the former will win out. The discrimination of gays in this country is shameful and wholly un-American.

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