Hard Knocks on Hardball

When I am up on Capitol Hill advocating for repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” I often get asked where Senator McCain is on this issue. It’s a good question – Senator McCain is thought of as an independent thinker who comes to his own conclusions and isn’t bound to party lines. He’s also a widely respected military veteran, former POW and senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who knows a thing or two about our nation’s Armed Forces.

People are often surprised when I report that Senator McCain supports “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and wants to keep the status quo. They are more surprised when I tell them Senator McCain justifies his opinion by referencing Colin Powell’s 1993 testimony that openly gay people would hurt the military. Senator McCain made his most recent public statement to this effect yesterday on Hardball with Chris Matthews.

In response to a University of Iowa student’s question about the wisdom of continuing to exclude gay people from the military in light of military recruiters’ difficult task of filling the ranks of our Armed Forces with well-qualified recruits, Senator McCain had this to say:

“I listen to people like General Colin Powell, Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and literally every military leader that I know. And they testified before Congress that they felt the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was the most appropriate way to conduct ourselves in the military. … We have the most qualified, the bravest and most capable military we’ve ever had in our history, and so I think that the policy is working. …[T]he day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, Senator, we ought to change the policy, then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it…”

I would have thought that after the whole WMD in Iraq debacle, Republicans would think twice about the old “point to Colin Powell to give your claim credibility” tactic. Not only are the statements Colin Powell and the service Chiefs made 13 years ago outrageously outdated given the ways in which American culture has progressed with respect to how it treats LGBT folks, they are also wrong. Time has proven them wrong.

About 65,000 members of the “most qualified, the bravest and the most capable military we’ve ever had in our history” just happen to be gay. We couldn’t be the world’s finest fighting force without them. And you know what else? Colin Powell and John McCain can keep their heads in the sand if they want to, but the American men and women fighting our war in Iraq and Afghanistan have moved on. They live in a different world from Powell and McCain. In the world they live in, what matters are duty, honor, courage, and trying to stay alive. And gayness or straightness doesn’t figure into that world. What matters is how hard you fight.

Senator McCain is a leader and a fighter. He knows better than to rest his positions on the outdated prejudices of others. 65,000 gay people are serving today. We owe them better than a law that asks them to lie for that privilege.

Senator McCain wants to be President of our great nation. Write him and urge him to change his stance on repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” If you are a veteran, tell him your story and why you think “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” should be repealed. If you aren’t a veteran, tell him why this matters to you. But whatever you do, make sure he hears from you.

- Sharon Alexander