Constitutional Law

House Panel Debates "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Policy

Congress conducted its first hearing on the effectiveness of the 1993 “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” policy, which bars gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the armed services.

At the Wednesday hearing before the House Armed Services personnel subcommittee, opponents of the policy denounced the policy as unpatriotic and unfair. Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.), the only Iraq war veteran in Congress, testified before the panel and charged supporters of the policy of not trusting “our military professionals to serve openly with people who might be different.”

Proponents of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” argued that allowing gays to serve openly would harm moral and increase the possibility of more HIV infections among service members. A Washington Post-ABC News poll published days before the hearing showed that 75 percent of Americans believe “gay people who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve in the U.S. military.”

On the day of the hearing, CNSNews.com, a conservative online news service, asked members of Congress whether they still supported “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), told CNS “we ought to sustain it.”

Full post as published by ACS Blog on July 26, 2008 (boomark / email).