The Obama administration yet again has defended "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in court. And yet again they're doing it in an incredibly offensive way that attempts to undercut our civil rights movement. Don't forget, the courts are indispensable to any minority community's efforts to gain its civil rights. The fact that the Obama administration keeps opposing our civil rights in court, when they don't have to, risks causing us serious damage.
As Richard Socarides, a lawyer who was formerly a senior adviser to President Clinton on gay issues, recently noted - what happens when these cases finally get to the US Supreme Court? Will President Obama direct his "Justice" Department to continue opposing our civil rights before the Supreme Court? Because if that happens, this White House won't know what hit it.
From HRC's press release:
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today criticized the Justice Department’s continued defense of the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, “Don’t Tell” (DADT) law by filing a motion for summary judgment in Witt v. Department of Air Force. In their motion, the Justice Department, after acknowledging in a footnote the president’s opposition to DADT as a policy matter, again vigorously defends the statute, and among its arguments is that Congress was reasonable in barring open service by lesbians and gays over concerns about deployments involving forced intimacy and a lack of privacy. The Justice Department goes on to contend that it needs a uniform rule to apply for DADT discharges, and rather than agreeing with the higher burden imposed by the Ninth Circuit in the Witt case in 2008, argues for a standard that will allow the Defense Department to more easily remove dedicated service members based on their sexual orientation.Now, why does this statement from HRC matter? Because HRC over the past year or so has been as close as you can get to an appendage of the Obama administration. For them to be using words like "ridiculous, offensive stereotypes" about the Obama administration's language on DADT is significant. A lot of gay people will now say "even HRC is pissed" at the administration, and "even HRC says the President is permitting his minions to promote offensive stereotypes about gays." HRC's statement will help even the final holdouts in our community understand that all is not well in Obama-land.
“Once again, the Justice Department insists on defending an indefensible statute, and in ways that reinforce ridiculous, offensive stereotypes about LGBT people and demeans the service of the thousands of men and women discharged under DADT,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “We agree on one point, though – there must be a uniform standard for the enforcement of DADT: repeal. President Obama must fulfill his promise to the country and work with the Senate to finish the job repealing this arcane and discriminatory law now.”
