Sunday, July 24, 2011

US ends ban on gays serving in military

Nearly three years after Obama's pledge, the United States has lifted the ban on openly gay people serving in the military. The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy was instituted in 1993 by Bill Clinton. This allowed homosexual people to serve in the military, but only if they kept it a secret. It was repealed last December by Congress, but was "formally" removed by President Obama yesterday. This means that LGBT members will no longer have to worry about being kicked from their service if their sexuality is revealed.
I think this is a great step forward as a country, despite the amount of time it took for us to get here (since the 1942 ban).
The new laws will officially take act on September 20. Those who were removed because of their sexuality as a result of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy will then be allowed to reapply.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/07/20117236596254791.html

4 comments:

Bianca Washington said...

The "Dont ask, Dont Tell" policy is finally over. People will be able to confortably join the army without being penalized for talking or acknowleging their sexuality. I agree that this is a great step forward as a country. I feel content that LGBT will be left alone and their sexuality will not determaine who they are and what they are capable of doing.

Alessandra said...

I agree that this is definitely a step in the right direction, however I have to wonder how much this really changes how gays are treated in the military. I obviously have not experienced what they go through, but I would imagine many are treated very negatively, hence the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy to begin with. I think it's great that it was finally repealed, I guess I just wonder if all that that changes is the literal policy and how gays are treated in that sense, or the actual mindset towards gays in the military.

Maya said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Maya said...

The repeal and then removal of the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy is definitely a fantastic thing, but I do see what Alessandra is getting at in questioning how this will change the treatment of LGBT military members. While this may or may not alter behaviors or mindsets in this military at this moment, I think it will over time. In addition, I believe that a huge part of why the DADT repeal is so important is the ideology behind it; this is a show of how Congress is growing more open minded on LGBTQ matters, and how legislature is moving in a more gay-friendly direction. The DADT repeal, in a way, seems to be a stepping stone for other LGBT related action, such as NY legalizing gay marriage (which came after Congress’ repeal and before Obama’s ‘formal’ removal.)

Blog Archive