Breaking the silence on DADT

"Hate crimes or not, recent attacks are all disgusting" reads an Oct. 12 headline of a Spokesman Review article, citing three to five recent downtown Spokane hate crime allegations, violent encounters that have left several members of the Inland Northwest LGBT community battered, bruised and outraged.

If it were not for the abhorrence of these recent events, and the repeal of a 17-year ban on gays serving openly in the military, Just Desserts and Gonzaga's Center for Community Action and Service-Learning (CCASL) may not have teamed up and instigated a diverse panel of community leaders to speak out on the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" and the importance of LBGT forbearance.

"Don't Ask Don't Tell" was a "compromise," an island between Reagan and Obama, between ban and repeal that shouldn't be seen as "evil," panelist Father Hightower S.J. said.  "This was something that progressed us as a culture forward."

Gonzaga law student and panelist Megan Paladin thought otherwise. "I think ["Don't Ask Don't tell"] was a ‘necessary evil' in that a complete ban wasn't possible during its inception, but the repercussions put gays in the military in a really hard place.  They were forced to lie about their families, in terms of unit cohesions they were forced to lie to their commanding officers just to not even go there and not even elicit the questions ‘who's that friend of yours' and create suspicion, because if suspicions were brought up, an investigation could be started. ["Don't Ask Don't Tell"] might have had good intentions, but there really was no morale for it and it actually had a really terrible effect on gays in the military," Paladin said.

In 1982, a defense directive from President Ronald Reagan stated, "homosexuality is incompatible with military service."  Those that engaged in such acts or stated that they were homosexual where discharged.  Ten years later, Presidential Candidate Bill Clinton promised to lift the ban of homosexuals from the military.

"Unfortunately because of the political climate at the time, [Clinton] didn't have a lot of capital or weight because he wasn't seen as someone who could relate to the military, could understand the military, he never served active duty—he was called a draft dodger—so the compromise was Don't Ask Don't Tell, which basically did three things. You couldn't say you were gay, you couldn't passively touch someone in a "gay way", and you couldn't be married in a same sex relationship," Paladin said.

Ten years later Clinton asked for an end to Don't Ask Don't Tell.  "When he signed it, at the time, it seen as a progressive move and a small triumph but it was not the end result, it wasn't what was intended in the gay community as the end of a long road of oppression."

In May of 2010, a provision to end the ban was passed, but no change would take place until the Pentagon conducted a study to reveal how the repeal would affect armed forces in the military. "As far as my research goes there are no reports that show why homosexuality has a negative affect on unit morale, which is kind of what the bill hangs its hat on," Paladin said.

Dec. 18 2010, the Senate voted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell and ended a multiple-year ban on gays serving openly in the military.

"A friend of mine was deployed to Germany today and he hugged me and said, "my god I never thought I'd see the day this would happen let alone while I was still serving,'" said OutSpokane Board Member and panelist Michael Jepson. "It's really allowed him to be able to say, hey, I'm still no different than you."

Now, it seems, lesbian, bisexual and gay members of society can proudly and peacefully hang pictures of their partners on their bunks, tanks and in planes. But how marginalized has LGBT community become since the bill?  The panel offered opposing inquiries.

"This [repeal] is a step closer to achieving social justice.  There is still some marginalization and that's something we as an educational institute have to work to overcome.  We have to figure out a way to continue our educational process so that others know as a Catholic community that this is completely fine, that we should not be demoralizing people for who they are," Hightower said. "Catholic doctrine is not anti homosexual in any way shape or form.  The Catholic Church has always taught that the highest moral good is always to follow your conscience. The flip side that goes with that is that your conscience has to be well taught."

"When it was implemented, it further marginalized against the LGBT community because it was basically the government saying ‘we'll tolerate you serving our country, but that's about as far as you can go," Paladin said. "This was to "protect" the majority from the minority."

The repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell allows members of any American military to now openly state that one is gay.  It also permits contact between persons of the same sex.  However, same-sex marriage is still prohibited.

"Federal law still prevents thousands from being recognized in the military under the Defense of Marriage Act and I think that's our logical next step for annulment," panelist and LTC Gregory Jacobsen said.

"I personally believe that there's been a backlash from the ignorant and the hateful who believe that [the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell] is a part of this big grand gay agenda to get everyone to like boys or girls or both, and I believe it's caused a span of attacks in the Spokane area, and it's creating some pushback. It's becomes a wedge issue," panelist Michael Jepson said.

To every panelist, it seems as though discussions on whether or not the repeal is commendable and on common tolerance can be best achieved through question and answer.