Editor’s note: This piece was written by Justin Elzie, the first Marine to come out under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” He served as an openly-gay Marine for four years just after DADT became law. He’s at today’s hearings and will be providing coverage direct from the hearing room.
Elzie is the author of “Playing By The Rules,” a memoir about his experiences coming out under DADT.
If you have never seen a Kabuki Dance then you should watch one at least once in your life. Watching a performance would give you a good idea of what you will see during today’s Senatorial political theater.
Kabuki is considered to be “out of the ordinary”, or “bizarre” theatre. Watching John McCain today will be an example of bizarre theatre. Long after 70-80 percent of the public thinks that DADT should be repealed and 92 percent of the military thinks that serving with someone gay would be positive or have no negative effects, this Kabuki actor called Senator John McCain will be in full form today and demonstrate just how out of touch or bizarre he can be.
He will be acting in a manner in direct opposition to anything relatively sane or logical as probably will be his sidekick Senator Lindsey Graham. But if I were a theatre critic I would be watching more closely instead the performance of some of the other more important actors as to clues to their real intentions and direction they are going to go in respect to repeal of DADT. For example, Susan Collins of Maine or Scott Brown of Massachusetts. Susan Collins of Maine in particular blamed her vote against DADT in September on procedural issues.
If anyone had seen the Pentagon Press Conference on Tuesday after the release of the study, they can expect to hear a rendition of the views of Secretary Gates, Admiral Mullen’s, Jeh Johnson and General Ham. Nothing new is expected to come out of their initial statements that would be any different than what we heard on Tuesday. And watching Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen grilled by the Senate Armed Services committee should be a repeat of earlier this year when they testified in support of repeal of DADT.
What will be new and a must see is how members of the committee question or go after Jeh Johnson or General Ham. Expect John McCain to ask General Ham his personal view of Homosexuality. All in all Thursday promises to be a yawner but a slow build up to what promises to be the climax of the Kabuki Theater on Friday when all of the Service Chiefs testify before the Committee.
Gates was really coy when asked Tuesday about the Service Chiefs views on the study and one can gleam from his comments that each one of the Service Chiefs will be free to give their full and honest views even if they differ with the Commander In Chief (President Obama) or the Secretary of Defense or the head of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mullen. What is sad is that in our democracy where the military is supposedly ran by the civilians; it is no longer seen as an aberration for Generals to openly be defiant or disrespectful of the Commander in Chief, President of the United States. Thursday promises to be a drum roll or precursor to Fridays hearings which will be a must watch show.
Here’s the Playbill of the cast of characters on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Stay tuned for a theatre review after today’s performance.