Obama’s Broken DADT Promise

Rachel Maddow has been in the forefront in reporting on service members who are being discharged under DADT and telling their stories.

She had Lieutenant Colonel Victor Fehrenbach on her show, talking about his pending discharge from the Air Force for being gay.  The military is — again — firing a hero from its ranks while President Obama is standing idly by, breaking his campaign promise to end DADT (and, by the way, repeal DOMA).

Here is the Maddow show’s segment with LTC Fehrenbach:

Maddow interviewed First Lieutenant Dan Choi in March (and again in May — this video is from his appearance on the Maddow show in May), a New York National Guardsman, who is also being discharged for being gay.  He, by the way, is an Arabic linguist, which we happen to need at the moment.

During this segment, Maddow also reported on the case of Second Lieutenant Sandy Tsao, who is also being discharged for being gay.  Tsao sent a personal letter to President Obama, who wrote her a hand-written letter in which he promised action on DADT, but said that he needed some time to get the bill through Congress.  (Rep. Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania says in this clip, though, that this could happen very quickly.  I’m sure it could be — Obama has the political capital to have Congress act quickly on DADT and DOMA.  But he has not.)

To my knowledge — and I think I’d notice — he has proposed no legislation to repeal DADT (or DOMA) and his spokesman, Robert Gibbs, has dodged many questions from the press on progress on these front.  The Pentagon spokesman said that there were no plans “in this building” to implement a repeal of DADT and strongly implied that the White House has not asked the Pentagon to begin planning for this eventuality.

All service members who are discharged for homosexuality are discharged for conduct detrimental to good order and discipline.  What I have yet to see is real proof on how being gay and being in the military harms good order and discipline in the military.  Can someone show a court of law how this is a problem for the military?  I don’t want to see or hear about the same straw man arguments that simply spout the same tired, untrue reasons.  I’m talking about laying out a case in court that proves it.  I don’t think it can be done.

Now, back to Obama.  As Pam’s House Blend points out, LTC Fehrenbach, 1LT Choi and 2LT Tsao and all the other discharged-for-being-gay service members don’t have time for President Obama to get the lead out.  Their honorable, heroic careers are over now.  This isn’t a political game — real people are being harmed because of President Obama’s and Congress’s inaction.  And what’s more, I submit that the military is being harmed and weakened too, losing good people who want to serve their country and who have been serving honorably and heroically.