DADT: Memorial Day Marks 70 Years of Discrimination Against Gay Service Members
Memorial Day is the 70th year of anti-gay discrimination officially embedded in military policy, despite the false belief that DADT has been repealed.
Today marks Memorial Day, a somber day in American life when we honor the service of those who gave their lives, the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of the people of the United States of America. This Memorial Day also bitterly marks the 70th year in American history in which government-sanctioned discrimination continues to be enforced against gays and lesbians serving in military. Contrary to what too many believe, the policy and practice of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) remains in place until the repeal is fully implemented.
Memorial Day also reminds that today is the 159th day since President Barack Obama signed the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law, which forces gay and lesbian service members to remain in the military closet, stripped of their right to speak freely about their lives, or face a punitive discharge from the military because of their sexual orientation.
Since 1941 millions of gay and lesbian Americans have served, despite various incantations of the same gay ban—“homosexuality is incompatible with military service”–policy which remained in place during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Grenada and Panama actions, Desert Storm, and through the Kosovo humanitarian intervention.
President Bill Clinton called DADT “an honorable compromise,” in 1993, when we lost the effort to repeal the gay ban. Thus, this Memorial Day also marks the 18th year of DADT as the policy of our government. That fact infuriates me.
We are now entering the sixth month since President Obama proclaimed the somewhat misleading words “It is done!” which he uttered when he ceremoniously signed the repeal bill, witnessed by 500 veterans activists and members of Congress who had worked years for its repeal. It feels as if we witnessed a bizarre version of “Kabuki” theater, myself having attended the signing ceremony of the repeal of DADT to such pomp and circumstance.
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We should take nothing for granted and hold President Obama and Congress accountable for complete and final repeal. Let us continue the fight and truly honor Memorial Day by establishing a state of equality that enables us to pay tribute to our dead, openly, knowing we are all free to say “I am gay” without fear and retribution.
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We were reminded in April by the White House (and should have not be lulled into thinking that anything had changed–at least not yet,) when Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) and Dr. Jill Biden launched “Joining Forces” a campaign for military families, explicitly excluding gay families, for the time being, until, well, the DADT policy was repealed.
When the White House was questioned if the initiative would include gay families, FLOTUS spokesperson Kristen Schake threw cold water on that notion by saying in a statement to the MetroWeekly, “The President has been crystal clear that the Administration is moving forward with the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ quickly and efficiently. However, it still remains the law. The White House, including the First Lady and Dr. Biden, look forward to working with the families of gay and lesbian service members after certification occurs and repeal goes into effect.”
Adding insult to injury to this deliberative and painstakingly-slow implementation process were the actions of the Republican-led House of Representatives last week which passed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that contained three anti-gay, anti-DADT repeal amendments.
Easily carried in a 322-96 majority vote and supported by a number of Democrats, one new hurdle has been added to an already onerous process, as the stridently anti-gay Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) sponsored the required formal concurrence of the service chiefs, along with the already required signatures of the president, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs. Other amendments include a restatement of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and a specific prohibition use of military facilities or personnel for same-sex marriage ceremonies.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-MjLWkDNqY&fs=1&hl=en_US]
In fact, complete repeal of DADT is far from done, despite the president’s misleading words. Obama had negotiated an agreement with the Department of Defense (DOD) leadership that provided for a deliberative and unnecessarily-long process that must culminate in a signed notification to Congress by the president, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs.
DADT remains very much in place, as a policy, while the military implements the recommendations of the Department of Defense Comprehensive Working Group report that includes DOD-wide training program, carried out by each service of how straight servicemembers are expected to treat gay and lesbian colleagues and to become well versed on the standards of conduct.
Will this be the last Memorial Day that discrimination remains the DOD standard mode of operation? Will July 4th mark the last day of independence in which the government of the United States continues to discriminate against those who are gay and lesbian and serve in the ranks?
I hope so.  The White House issued a statement rejecting the House’s actions. But I do not take anything for granted and neither should members of  the LGBT community. The Republicans have made clear they are not going down without a fight and drag out the final steps for complete repeal of DADT as long as they can. Coupled with the national Tea Party antics, as evidenced in the Walker takeover in Wisconsin, their efforts have made clear, rule of law be damned—are cautionary tales.
President Obama said it best at the signing ceremony when he stated America “is not a country of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” As a child growing up in the 1960s I always thought America was the country of “can do”–we were taught to believe that Americans can do anything, as long as we put our minds to a task and work hard.
And yet, today, despite the president’s soaring rhetoric,  I am not counting down the days to repeal because there is no line of demarcation that moves us to a date of destiny, free of discrimination. The process negotiated beween the president and the Pentagon was left to be a dangerously open-ended, one that has been pounced upon by Republican opponents.
READ: DADT: For Memorial Day Jewish Women Demand Congress End Repeal Opposition
Instead, all of us should stay on top of this legislation and ride herd on it all the way to Obama’s desk for his final, final signature. Are you convinced the Democrats are going to stand behind the plan?
I am not, despite national polling data that just keeps getting better and better for the LGBT community.
A recent Gallup poll recorded in excess of 50 percent support by respondents in a national survey on gay marriage is maddening irrelevant to cautious politicians–the poll numbers on gays in the military have enjoyed some of the highest numbers in support of gay rights in the history of poll-taking on gay issues. But poll numbers don’t matter to legislators who have feet made of clay or who simply view gays not worthy of equal citizenship.
So, we should take nothing for granted and hold President Obama and Congress accountable for complete and final repeal. Let us continue the fight and truly honor Memorial Day by establishing a state of equality that enables us to pay tribute to our dead, openly, knowing we are all free to say “I am gay” without fear and retribution. This liberty is the most honorable tribute we can bestow on America’s mostly unsung and unknown LGBT heroes of the past 235 years.
(image: dbking, “12,000 Flags for 12,000 Patriots”, 2007)
Tanya L. Domi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, who teaches about human rights in Eurasia and is a Harriman Institute affiliated faculty member. Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi worked internationally for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights, gender issues, sex trafficking, and media freedom.
Read Tanya Domi’s most-recent previous article at The New Civil Rights Movement, “DADT: For Memorial Day Jewish Women Demand Congress End Repeal Opposition.”
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
