It said something about how deep-rooted bigotryagainst gay people was in 1993 that a simple issue of fairness andnondiscrimination created a firestorm of controversy for Clinton.
With a country to save from another Great Depressionand the ambition of finally reforming national health care, President BarackObama waited until the start of his second year in office to raise the issue.
So far, the mild public reaction suggests manyAmericans are ready to move beyond the ugly prejudices of the past. TheRepublican Party, however, thinks it can continue to make trouble for Obama byappealing to bigotry.
Republican senators rudely attacked the chairman ofthe Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense for expressing supportbefore Congress for ending the military's absurd “Don't Ask, Don't Tell”policy.
It's worth remembering that Adm. Mike Mullen,chairman of the joint chiefs, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates both wereoriginally appointed by Republican President George W. Bush.
That means Republicans in the Senate have now movedso far to the extreme fringe that even the top Republicansmilitary andcivilianin the Pentagon aren't right-wing enough for them.
On the other hand, anyone looking for evidence we'reactually making progress on human rights in this country only had to look tothe testimony of Mullen and Gates.
Mullen said he'd served with gays in the militarythroughout his entire career beginning in 1968. Of the current “Don't Ask,Don't Tell” policy, which requires gays to hide their sexual orientation or bebarred from service, Mullen said:
“No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escapebeing troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces youngmen and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellowcitizens.”
Gates said it was no longer a question of whetherthe policy would be repealed, but only when.
Break from the Past
Those attitudes contrast with the embarrassingresistance of Clinton'sdefense secretary and chairman of the joint chiefs to ending discriminationback in 1993.
Part of the embarrassment is Wisconsin's, since thelate Les Aspin, former Congressman for Racine and Kenosha, was Clinton'ssecretary of defense and one of the primary architects of “Don't Ask, Don'tTell.”
Early in his congressional career, Aspin had been aprogressive voice on U.S.military policy, attacking wasteful Pentagon spending and opposing U.S.involvement in the Vietnam War.
But by 1985, when Aspin became chairman of the HouseArmed Services Committee, he seemed to have been captured by the same militaryhard-liners he'd opposed. He backed President Ronald Reagan's MX missile systemand aid to the contras trying to overthrow the government of Nicaragua.
On Clinton'sattempt to end discrimination against gays in the military, Secretary Aspinultimately caved to opposition from military leaders and absurd arguments aboutgrown men being afraid to take showers.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was ColinPowell, someone today we would expect to be more enlightened. Today, he is.Powell now says he fully supports Adm. Mullen's review of “Don't Ask, Don'tTell.”
But back in 1993, Powell was one of those who arguedagainst ending discrimination in the military, using the euphemism popular atthe time that allowing gays to serve openly would undermine “discipline” in themilitary.
Everyone knows how famously “disciplined” soldiersand sailors have always been about sex, especially when they are on leave insome foreign port.
It's hard to believe now, but “Don't Ask, Don'tTell” was sold by Clinton and Aspin as an advance over the previous policy of“Don't You Dare Tell.”
The effect was the same. Gays were not tolerated. Infact, for years after “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” went into effect, far more peoplewere thrown out of the military every year for being gay than had beenpreviously.
When Republicans say the current policy has worked,they can't possibly mean that it has worked for the thousands of people whosemilitary careers have been destroyed because somebody asked or somebody told.
In Wisconsin,as in many other states, firing people from their jobs because of their sexualorientation is against the law.
The reason polls show the public opposes jobdiscrimination against gays, including by the military, is precisely becausecloset doors are no longer tightly locked.
As more and more gays feel comfortable beingidentified, we now know gays are not some alien species. They are our fellowemployees, family members, friends and loved ones.
Not even big, tough guys in the military have to beafraid of them anymore. Gays are human beings just like us.
