Too often the debate about gays in the military gets obscured by a popular but blatant myth. It is wrong to assert that gays and lesbians cannot serve in the U.S. armed forces. Not only can they do so, they always have and they always will. But because of the 17-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, they are forced to hide their sexuality.
Fortunately, three men at the top of the chain of command understand this reality, and that led two of them on Tuesday to a watershed moment. It was probably the most significant moment in the policy history of the U.S. military since President Harry Truman officially integrated the armed forces in 1948. Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, the highest-ranking man in uniform, put it best when he expressed his personal and unofficial belief that “don’t ask, don’t tell” should be abolished: “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,” Mullen told a Senate hearing. “For me, it comes down to integrity — theirs as individuals and ours as an institution.”
Later, when challenged by Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Mullen replied sternly, “This is about leadership, and I take that very, very seriously.”
President Obama has made clear his opposition to “don’t ask, don’t tell.” And on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a Republican and the only hold-over from the Bush administration Cabinet, agreed with Mullen and announced a yearlong review of how the ban could be lifted. The strongest supporters of lifting the ban will call that study an unwarranted delay, but we see it as necessary. Abolishing “don’t ask, don’t tell” should be done only after the fullest examination by military leaders. Lifting the ban must be done with the greatest caution, without affecting the capabilities of history’s most skilled, best equipped and most valiant defenders of freedom.
