Why Such a Debate on Don’t Ask, Dont’ Tell Policy?

I saw an article yesterday about how the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made a ruling in 2008 that gays cannot be expelled from the military unless the military can prove that “the firing promotes cohesion or discipline in the unit.” The government didn’t appeal this decision. So in nine of our states, gays in the military already have increased protection under law. According to the article, if they are expelled under the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, it could be grounds to seek punitive damages from the government. If this is already policy in nine states, why not just make it policy across the board for the military? Why do reviews on repealing the policy? It looks like the hard work for the government was already done by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because at least in those nine states the government needs to uphold the ruling, and if those standards aren’t applied to soldiers elsewhere, you run the risk of people crying foul based on discrimination due to geographic location. Looks like the government has a whole can of worms to sort out.

For more about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, I found a great post at Left Face.

Related posts:

1. The Health Care Debate
2. They Published My Letter
3. Site Feed
4. Falling Through The Cracks
5. The H1N1 Vaccine

Category: Army, military