New York Times Editorial: Don’t Stay the ‘Don’t Ask’ Ruling

New York Times Editorial: Don’t Stay the ‘Don’t Ask’ Ruling
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: October 16, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/opinion/17sun3.html?th&emc=th


The Obama administration has conjured up some inflated fears to justify its decision to appeal an injunction that brought a screeching halt to investigations and discharges of gay men and women serving in the military.

To hear the administration tell it, lifting the prohibition on gay men and lesbians openly serving in uniform would undermine global combat operations. In truth, the real potential for harm is to gay service members if the injunction is held in abeyance.

The injunction was issued on Tuesday by Judge Virginia Phillips, of the Federal District Court in central California, who had ruled that “don’t ask, don’t tell” was an unconstitutional infringement on the rights of due process and free speech. The law has been used to drum out some 13,000 service members in the past 17 years.

Although President Obama and the Pentagon’s top leaders have all said they want the law repealed, the Justice Department on Thursday asked Judge Phillips to stay her injunction while it files an appeal.

As justification, the administration made overheated claims that a precipitous change in wartime would have adverse effects on morale, good order, discipline and unit cohesion. Those are the same specious arguments used to justify the benighted policy in the first place. The administration wants to leave it in place while it finishes a study on how to carry out a repeal.

Clifford Stanley, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a court filing that ending the antigay policy would require training, and reworking regulations on issues like housing, benefits and standards of conduct. He said the Army had to consider the “rights and obligations of the chaplain corps.” Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the military had to consider whether barracks should be segregated and whether partners of gay soldiers should have benefits.

This sounds disturbingly like the creation of a “separate but equal” system. The armed forces do not need to be protected from their gay and lesbian personnel. The military has always had its own culture and rules of behavior, but it has not been living in a cave.

Judge Phillips has hit on a simpler, more equitable solution: just stop enforcing “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It has done more to harm military readiness than her injunction possibly could.