support civil-rights Lady Gaga Tells Senators: Do Your Job, Repeal DADT!

September 20, 2010

support civil-rights Lady Gaga Tells Senators: Do Your Job, Repeal DADT!

Lady Gaga attracted media attention last week for wearing a dress made of meat to the VMAs, but at the same award show Gaga also stood alongside four former military personnel, all of whom were discharged under the military's ban on openly gay servicemembers called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT), to highlight and protest the 1993 law.

In a video released Friday, Lady Gaga implores the Senate to repeal DADT as well as for her fans to get calling legislators with the same message. She also details why she feels DADT is a critical issue and relates the stories of discharged soldiers that have been ousted under the ban:

If you would like to call your senators, the SLDN action website Lady Gaga mentions in this video can be found by clicking here. It gives you information on how to contact them and what to say.

Repeal Language May Get First Vote Tuesday
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced last week that the first vote on the Defense Authorization bill which contains the ban repeal languageis expected to happen in the Senate on Tuesday as Reid prepares to tackle Senator John McCain's (R-AZ) planned filibuster.

As to whether this move will be successful, Senator Joe Lieberman, a co-sponsor of the repeal, voiced his concerns to The Advocate, saying the necessary 60 votes to break the looming threat of a GOP filibuster might not be there:

Sen. Joseph Lieberman summed it up best Thursday, suggesting that breaking next week’s potential GOP filibuster on the National Defense Authorization Act, which houses "don't ask, don't tell" repeal, depended almost entirely on a procedural showdown between Democrats and Republicans.

“The question is whether the Senate leadership can negotiate an agreement with the Republicans that will allow the bill to come up and get them to feel that they can introduce amendments that they want to introduce as well,” Lieberman told The Advocate. “But until that happens, I don’t think the votes are there to break the filibuster, which would be a shame.”

DADT Meets DREAM
More hopes were pinned on the passage of the defense authorization bill last week when Senator Reid announced that he would attach theDevelopment, Relief and Education of Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act).

The Act would give undocumented youths who came to the U.S. as children the ability to obtain permanent residency through higher education or military service.

Reaction to this addition has been mixed.

Coming in a year that has seen immigration and immigrant rights at the forefront of public and political debate, some commentators have predicted the move could raise the hackles of already opposed GOP senators and even loose votes among Democratic legislators (and possibly stir trouble with some among the Democrat's voter base).

However, others have suggested this tactic might galvanize support from both immigration reform and DADT repeal advocates and provide a boost to both causes.

This, of course, doesn't prevent the looming threat of President Obama potentially vetoing the defense bill over weapons some lawmakers want but the President and Secretary of Defense do not, but it may put the bill in a stronger position given that President Obama has long advocated both immigration reform, which the DREAM Act touches on, and a repeal of the military's open service ban.

An insightful comment from The Atlantic articulates the difficult position Reid has put Republican senators in with this move should they too vehemently oppose the bill, and also the potential trap that he has gambled on in attaching the DREAM Act:

By slipping DREAM into the defense authorization bill, Reid sets a potential trap for Republicans: vote against the immigration measure and risk being portrayed as stiffing the troops less than two months before midterm elections. But Reid also sets a potential trap for himself, opening the door for Republican opponents -- specifically Nevada challenger Sharron Angle -- to emphasize his Washington insider habit of manipulating legislation so as to further his own political ambitions. "Harry Reid," one can imagine the voice-over actor intoning, "would rather cater to interest groups than give our troops the support they need."

You can read more about DREAM in Care2's previous coverage here, but this tactic has definitely annoyed Senator John McCain:

The next day, McCain told the Washington Times that he would not support passage of the defense authorization bill because it was an attempt to push the “social agenda of the liberal left.”

McCain said he also objected to the bill's inclusion of the DREAM Act, a bill that would allow undocumented youth with a high school diploma and a clean criminal record a path to U.S. citizenship if they committed to two years in the military or college.

The Arizona senator said immigration reform was not relevant to the military budget, adding that its inclusion was “a transparent attempt [by Reid] to win an election.” -- OnTop Magazine.

Securing Bipartisan Support for the Repeal Amendment

It seems clear that passage of the bill will hinge on moderate Republicans voting in favor of the National Defense Authorization Act with said amendments, or at the very least refusing to support a McCain led filibuster.

Key individuals include Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) who voted in favor of attaching the repeal measure in the Senate Armed Services Committee. As is her usual position on subjects like this, she has said that she advocates a full debate on the floor but is still on the fence as to whether she will vote in favor of the bill with the repeal language attached.

Other as yet publicly undecided Senators include (click if you would like to contact):

If you would like to contact your Senator by email, you can find the relevant contact information by clicking here and doing a quick search.

Court Win May Boost Legislative Repeal Effort

The repeal effort was given a significant boost recently when federal U.S. District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips ruled that DADT was unconstitutional because it violated lesbian and gay soldiers' 1st Amendment and 5th Amendment rights. Read more about that decision here.

"Once again, homosexual activists have found a judicial activist that will aid in the advancement of their agenda,” Tony Perkins, president of religious right group the Family Research Council, offered after the decision was issued.

This failed to fly in most moderate circles as Phillips' colleagues hit back, saying that Phillips is no activist. From the New York Times:

Through them all, she has maintained a relatively low profile — until Thursday, that is, when she declared the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law governing gay and bisexual members of the military unconstitutional.

“Honestly, I did not expect it to get as much attention as it did,” Judge Phillips said. “During the course of the case, there wasn’t a lot of attention paid to it.”

[...]

Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the University of California, Irvine, law school, called the decision “stunning in its thoroughness,” and lauded the judge’s “careful job of explaining why don’t ask, don’t tell violates both due process and the First Amendment.”

[...]

But Judge Phillips is anything but an ideologue, said Arthur Littleworth, her mentor at the Best, Best & Krieger law firm early in her career. “She is balanced,” he said.

Mr. Littleworth recalled being impressed with the quality of a “scholarly treatise” that Judge Phillips wrote on the power of the federal government in a major water-rights case, and noted that “now, in this current case, she held for the rights of the individual.”

Colleagues say that Judge Phillips devotes long hours to her caseload.

Per Judge Phillip's request, the Log Cabin Republican legal team that brought this suit filed their motion for an injunction on DADT discharges last week. You can read their request for the permanent injunction against further discharges here.

Phillips has yet to comment on the proposed injunction, but given that this would blunt DADT enforcement, the potential boon to the repeal effort is an obvious one. The DOJ has yet to announce if it will appeal the Court's ruling, though an appeal is expected.

Lastly, it is worth keeping in mind that the language attached to the National Defense Authorization Bill will not repeal the military's DADT policy outright but would repeal the "Policy Concerning Homosexuality in the Armed Forces" or 10 U.S.C. 654, (put under the umbrella of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy but actually distinct). The language would then allow military leaders to set about dismantling the ban as they see fit. This was passed by the House of Representatives in May.

However, the legislation has drawn criticism because it gives no time frame for the actual full DADT repeal and puts military leaders firmly in control without compelling them to take any direct action whatsoever. You can read more about that here.

Regardless, all eyes will be on the Senate for Tuesday's scheduled vote, and while passage of the repeal language is anything but assured, with the potential injunction against further DADT discharges currently in the works, the military's gay ban seems closer to being dismantled than ever before.

posted by: Steve Williams