JimmieJoe / KC6YRU

At DADT Hearings, Secretary Of Defense Is Fierce Gay Advocate | The New Civil Rights Movement.

Secretary of Defense since December 2006 (appointed by George W. Bush and approved by the Republican controlled Senate), Robert M. Gates today stood up to Republican members of the Armed Services Committee in defense of ending the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy in effect for 17 years.

Reprising a Reagan line, “If not now, when? When we’re out of Afghanistan?” Mr. Gates said. “I don’t see the world getting to be a safer, easier place to live in, where our troops are necessarily under less stress.”  The Armed Forces integrated racially during the Korean war, when resistance both in the services and the public in general was strongly against that action.  Majority opinion in both the military services and in the public in general support repeal of DADT, but Republican Senators are attempting to stonewall the repeal, part of the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act).  They are willing to hold up funding for the entire military, rather than let the bill pass with DADT repeal included.

Firmly, but respectfully, Secretary Gates made it clear he supports repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.