Defense Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified before Congress today and called for an end to Don't Ask/Don't Tell. Mullen said
“No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.”
This was always my biggest objection to the law and the reason I left the military after 12 years. It's about integrity. Gays in the military are required to betray their personal integrity. I left the Army as a Major and gave up all retirement benefits because I could no longer live with the hypocrisy and the double life. I was senior enough that I was being called on more and more to be a part of the enforcement mechanism of DA/DT. I always successfully avoided personal involvement in kicking out gay soldiers and, on several occasions, talked commanders out of starting new investigations into homosexuality. Ultimately though, I got to the point where I could no longer be a part of an institution with an official policy of discrimination against of my own people. I told myself I was working to undermine the policy from the inside, but that was a rationalization. As an Army officer, I was part of the problem. Besides, as a lawyer, I couldn't do what my client, the Army, wanted me to do, which was persecute gays. So I got out.
Gates and Mullen are calling for more studies and any repeal is far off, but this is progress.
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