The Air Force discharged an airman under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) four months after President Obama signed the path toward repealing DADT into law, and six months after heightened specifications on approving DADT discharges went into effect. This is the first “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” discharge in six months, according to a Pentagon source.
READ: DADT: Memorial Day Marks 70 Years of Discrimination Against Gay Service Members
The unnamed airman was discharged April 29. It is unclear why this news just now came to light but Chris Geidner of MetroWeekly broke the story late Thursday.
Geidner writes that in January, “Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Clifford Stanley said that no DADT-related discharges had occurred under the new procedure requiring the approval of the service branch secretary, Stanley and Defense Department general counsel for discharges.”
“Asked by Metro Weekly at the time to clarify the circumstances under which an individual would be discharged currently under DADT, Stanley said then that he could not answer with any specificity because he must consider ‘the gestalt of all of what that individual is or is about’.”
It is important to remember that President Obama signed into law the path toward repeal, but the law and policy of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell remain very much in place, as this discharge proves. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is the 1993 law, already found unconstitutional, that prohibits openly-gay service members from serving in the nation’s armed forces. An estimated 78% of Americans believe the law should be repealed.
Despite overwhelming support for open service in America, Republicans in Congress have been trying to add extra steps to the repeal process, and succeeded last month in attaching three anti-gay bills to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), one of which would make repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” more challenging. The Senate has yet to vote on those measures. It is unclear if the President would sign a bill into law delaying repeal of DADT.
“This discharge underscores the need for the President, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Secretary of Defense to certify ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal and put this ugly chapter in American history behind us,” said Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis. “It also highlights the undeniable and unfortunate fact that service members remain under investigation and at risk of discharge.â€
LGBTQ Nation notes, “On April 7, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said preparation for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was entering its final phase.” That was just three weeks prior to the firing of the unnamed airman.
Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley is the head of the U.S.A.F.