Will Congress Slow or Stop Military’s LGBT Law?

I have seen inexplicable activities going on in the Pentagon before, but I’ve never seen anything quite like this.  Doublethink, groupthink, and political correctness are driving controversial policies, with almost no dissent except from the outside.  This is where the Center for Military Readiness comes in. 

Obama Administration officials keep insisting that a few mandatory PowerPoint “tiered training” presentations, designed to promote acceptance of open and professed homosexuals in the military, are sufficient to manage a host of problems related to human sexuality.  They also claim that all burdens are justified in order to achieve complete “diversity” in the ranks.  The real reason is that President Barack Obama is determined to make good on his renewed campaign promises to the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) Left.

Fortunately, the 112^th Congress may have arrived just in time.

During two public hearings conducted by the House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee chaired by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) on April 1, and the full committee on April 7, both new and senior members of the committee stepped up to ask good questions of Defense Department witnesses and the military service chiefs of staff.   

During the full HASC hearing on April7, the question asked most often was “How will repeal of the 1993 law improve the All-Volunteer Force?”  The military service chiefs had no answer for that question.  And when they were asked about some of the thorniest issues involved with repeal of the 1993 law regarding gays in the military, the most often-heard response was “I don’t know.”

These dynamics have demonstrated the need for more hearings, in order to hear independent witnesses with different perspectives.  Please call or send a note thanking House Armed Services Committee members who participated, and do everything you can to encourage all members to provide responsible oversight before the president “certifies” repeal of the 1993 law.  (Contact information is posted here, and the US Capitol switchboard number is 202/224-3121.)

CMR has prepared summaries of the hearings that you won’t find anywhere else, linked below.    You will also be encouraged by comments that HASC Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-CA) made last Sunday on C-SPAN.

To see exactly what we are up against with this administration, please note the article below about a recent ABC News report on what President Obama said about his campaign for gays in the military when he thought the media were not listening. 

Thank you for your continuing support for our men and women in the military.

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A.  HASC Hearings Reveal Flawed DoD Plans for Implementing LGBT Law

The advocates of radical change should be required to make their case with objective arguments that are based on empirical evidence—meaning actual experience—not academic theories, emotion, or rosy scenarios that deny human realities.  At the two April hearings, HASC members diligently revealed with respectful questions just how weak the case for “repeal” really is.

These are the brief summaries of two recent hearings on the issue of gays in the military that explain many reasons why “certification” should not proceed:

• Analysis of House Armed Services Committee Hearing, April 7, 2011
• Analysis of House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee Hearing, April 1, 2011
  

CMR has worked hard to raise awareness of many of the questions that members of the HASC asked during the hearings.  With your help we will continue to do so.   We have good reason to believe that Personnel Subcommittee Chairman Joe Wilson will schedule another hearing soon.

B.  HASC Chairman “Buck” McKeon Resists DoD Rush to Repeal

Please take a moment to view this video/partial transcript of comments made by HASC Chairman “Buck” McKeon on C-SPAN last Sunday.  Toward the end of the video, at about the 00:21:00 point, Chairman McKeon discussed his reservations about the rush to repeal the law regarding gays in the military, and explained quite clearly how the Pentagon’s survey of the troops was misrepresented: 

• April 17, 2011:  CSPAN Newsmaker Interview with HASC Chairman “Buck” McKeon

Chairman McKeon expressed his intent to look out for the troops by giving them what they need and avoiding the impositions of major distractions involved with repeal of the 1993 law.  He also expressed a willingness to revisit the issue with responsible oversight.  This is good news.

President Obama reportedly wants to sign the required “certification” paper soon—probably in June as part of his annual celebration of “LGBT Equality” month.  Please do what you can to thank HASC Chairman McKeon and Personnel Subcommittee Chairman Wilson, encouraging them to schedule additional hearings before President Obama signs a paper to impose the LGBT agenda on our military 60 days after his “certification.”  (Contact information is here and the US Capitol phone number is 202/224-3121.)

C.  President Obama Admits Political Benefits of Using the Military

More hearings cannot happen soon enough, since President Barack Obama already is boasting of his own brilliance in getting military leaders to carry water for his LGBT political agenda.  In an article titled “The Dog That Didn’t Bark,” Jordyn Phelps of ABC News reported on “candid comments” that were recorded on a live microphone after reporters had been escorted out of a Chicago fundraiser on April 14. 

Obama told supporters that his efforts to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” were successful due to his own “smart political strategy,” involving “the Pentagon taking leadership” of the project.  Bragged Obama, “We said if we do it in a way that the Pentagon takes ownership for [implementation], then not only can we get it passed, but we will have changed—it will not be an event.  And look what’s happened!  It’s the dog that didn’t bark.”

The Commander-in-Chief knows very well that military officers have willingly made the commitment to follow orders, without visible dissent.  The principle is honorable and admirable, but in this case the president is taking advantage of the unique culture of the military to deliver on political promises to the LGBT Left. 

Obama’s political strategy for pleasing his LGBT base has been cunning, not “smart.”  It is unseemly for the Commander-in-Chief to be bragging about the apparent submission of personnel under his command.  The president’s point also is wrong.  The “dogs” of the military did “bark,” but he chose not to hear them. 

Prior to rushed action in last year’s lame-duck Congress, military personnel expressed strong opposition in the Defense Department’s official surveys, particularly in the close combat arms.  Military officials are not at liberty to dissent, but members of Congress can and should act to protect the interest of uniformed men and women and the armed forces as a whole.

D.  Heritage Foundation Examines Conflicts and Consequences of Repeal

Chuck Donovan, Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, has written an excellent analysis of this issue.  Backgrounder # 2540 provides a comprehensive chronicle of recent legislative history, and explains why major issues, such as religious freedom and the impact of repeal on family law, remain unresolved:

• A Clash of Integrities: Moral and Religious Liberty in the Armed Forces. 

E.  Alliance Defense Fund Defends the Law in Log Cabin Appeal

The Alliance Defense Fund has filed a splendid brief in defense of the current law before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in the continuing case brought by the Log Cabin Republicans.  We are grateful to the ADF for picking up the argument that the Department of Justice wants to drop:

• Alliance Defense Fund files Friend of Court Brief in Log Cabin v. U.S. Case

F.  More Commentaries on Consequences of the LGBT Law

• Gary McCaleb, Alliance Defense Fund:  Seven Days in May
• Chuck Colson: Careening Toward a Cliff
• Washington Times Editorial: Obama’s New DADT Policy
• Bob Knight: Marching in Lockstep With Homosexual Agenda
• Coral Ridge Ministries Statement to House Armed Services Committee

G.  What the Pentagon and LGBT Left Doesn’t Want the Congress to Notice:

A few media reports are finally starting to tell the full story of what full implementation of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) law for the military would entail:

• Newsweek: The Military’s Secret Shame
• AP: Transgender Vets Want Military Access

1. H.  Consequences of LGBT Law & Policies
   

1.  Religious Liberty

In this article, a spokesman for the Army chief of chaplains denies the essence of the Tier 1 training for chaplains: “In no way are we giving the message, shape up or ship out.” 

• Religion News Service: Chaplains Offered Exit Plan as Gay Training Starts

The statement, which the reporter said was on the record, was disingenuous and demoralizing—especially since it is coming from the chief chaplain’s office.  A training slide on page #11 of the training program for Army chaplains,  which should be viewed with the notes below it that are not intended for viewing by the audience, discuss withdrawal of religious endorsements from chaplains.  Any who are not comfortable with duties outside of worship services, such as the responsibility to conduct LGBT-related training classes that conflict with their own view of morality, will be invited to “reflect” on their “vocation.”  Their options will be to self-censor except during worship services (a new form of DADT), to serve in some other “de-frocked” status, or to leave voluntarily if he or she does not owe time to the Army.

Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), who is openly gay and a member of the Air Force Academy’s Advisory Board, has recommended that the academy should consider hiring gay and lesbian chaplains.  In this article posted by USNA-At-Large), Polis added that cadets should be welcome to bring “the date of their choice” to Air Force Academy balls and other social functions:

• Colorado Springs Gazette -- Congressman: Air Force Academy Should Welcome Gay Clergy, Same-Sex Dating

2.  Medical Concerns

A recent Center for Disease Control Fact Sheet provided by Robert Forrest seems to contradict the assurances of military surgeons general that inclusion of homosexuals (by definition, men who have sex with men) in the US military would have no medical consequences, due to frequent testing.  The claim is debatable at best:

• AP:  44% of Gay, Bisexual Men with HIV Don’t Know It

Among other things, the CDC Fact Sheet (dated September 2010) reported:

• MSM (men who have sex with men) account for nearly half of the more than one million people living with HIV in the U.S. (48%, or an estimated 532,000 total persons).

• MSM account for more than half of all new HIV infections in the U.S. each year (53%, or an estimated 28,700 infections).

• While CDC estimates that MSM account for just 4% of the U.S. male population aged 13 and older, the rate of new HIV diagnoses among MSM in the U.S. is more than 44 times that of other men (range: 522–989 per 100,000 MSM vs. 12 per 100,000 other men).

•  MSM are the only risk group in the U.S. in which new HIV infections are increasing. While new infections have declined among both heterosexuals and injection drug users, the annual number of new HIV infections among MSM has been steadily increasing since the early 1990s.

This is a sensitive subject, and it did not come up in the April HASC hearings.  Given what is at risk, our military deserves better than head-in-the-sand denials of potential problems.

F.  How Legislators Voted in the Lame Duck Session

With the election season getting underway, the following information is for quick reference;

• House– Roll Call 638, Dec. 15, 2010, “DADT Repeal Act of 2010.”  Fifteen Republicans voted wrong, the most disappointing being Ron Paul (TX) and Jeff Flake (AZ).

• Senate Key Vote on Cloture: Roll Call 279, Dec. 18, 2020, 63-Yea, 33-Nay, 4 Not Voting.  Forty-one votes were required to win on cloture, the key vote leading to action on the repeal legislation.  Republicans who went back on their word: Collins and Snowe, (ME), Brown (MA), Kirk (IL), Murkowski (AK), Voinovich (OH).  Republicans Bunning (KY), Hatch (UT) and Gregg (NH), plus Manchin (D-WV), did not vote.

• Senate Vote on Repeal: Roll Call 281, Dec. 18, 2010, 65-Yea, 31-Nay, 4 Not Voting.  Republicans voting for repeal included all of the above plus Senators Burr (NC) and Ensign (NV).

Happy Easter everyone!

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The Center for Military Readiness is an independent, non-partisan 501(c)(3) public policy organization that specializes in military social issues.   More information is available at www.cmrlink.org.