Republicans Want "Don't Ask" Law
Republican Candidates Approve of Anti-Gay U.S. Military Policy
© Kat Long
The top four Republican presidential hopefuls wouldn't change the controversial "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in their administrations. Will they lose LGBT votes?
The top four Republican candidates in the 2008 U.S. presidential election—Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, and Rudolph Giuliani—all vow to keep the anti-gay U.S. military policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) in place in their administrations.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has emerged as a hot-button issue for gay voters in the upcoming election. The top three Democratic contenders—Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards—have all called for a repeal of the law.
Enacted in 1993, DADT prohibits openly gay men and women from serving in the U.S. armed forces. The Iraq War has placed a spotlight on the military’s need for increased recruitment and retaining of servicemembers with specialized skills, such as fluency in Arabic. Nevertheless, from 1994 to 2005, more than 11,000 servicemembers have been discharged for violating DADT according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
Many LGBT voters are weighing the desire for equality in the military against the potential disruptions that a repeal of DADT could cause in a wartime scenario.
Of the four candidates, only McCain has military experience (as a career Navy pilot). But all of the Republican candidates are wary of altering military policy in a time of war, and each has his own perspective on the issue. Here are their views. (The top Democratic contenders all want a repeal of DADT).
Mitt Romney
“’Don't Ask, Don't Tell’ has worked well. We're in the middle of a conflict. Now is not the time for a change in that regard and I don't have a policy posture as to allowing gays in the military to serve there openly.”
(WashingtonPost.com, February 19, 2007)
Mike Huckabee
“The Uniform Code of Military Justice is probably the best rule, and it has to do with conduct. People have a right to have whatever feelings, whatever attitudes they wish, but when their conduct could put at risk the morale, or put at risk even cohesion…I think that's what is at issue. And that's why [DADT] is what it is.”
(CNN/YouTube Republican presidential debate, November 28, 2007)
John McCain
“[DADT] unambiguously maintains that open homosexuality within the military services presents an intolerable risk to morale, cohesion, and discipline….I believe the polarization of personnel and breakdown of unit effectiveness is too high a price to pay for well-intentioned but misguided efforts to elevate the interests of a minority of homosexual servicemembers above those of their units. Most importantly, the national security of the United States, not to mention the lives of our men and women in uniform, are put at grave risk by policies detrimental to the good order and discipline which so distinguish America’s Armed Services. For these reasons, which have nothing to do with my personal judgments about homosexual behavior, I remain opposed to the open expression of homosexuality in the U.S. military.”
(letter to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, April 16, 2007)
Rudolph Giuliani
“I think [DADT], we should leave alone. We are in a time of war…When we get out of the crisis, when we get out of the situation, we can consistently review it and look at it -- but it shouldn't be done right now. It would be a very big mistake to re-raise that issue right now when we are dealing not just with Iraq, but this entire war on terror.”
(CNN.com, April 4, 2007)
