Friday, January 25th, 2008

How About I Won’t Ask You What You’re Working On These Days And You Don’t Tell?

The City Council is back to caring about the big issues — education, overdevelopment and . . . President Clinton’s failed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy:

The resolution urges President Bush to allow openly gay men and women to serve in the armed forces.

“There are plenty of people who are LGBT in the military right now, so I don’t even understand why it’s such a fuss,” one of the resolution’s co-sponsors, Council Member Gale Brewer, said yesterday. “They are extremely good officers like anyone else.”

The “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, enacted under President Clinton in 1993, allows gay men and women to serve in the military, as long as they do not disclose their orientation. Since the policy was put into place, thousands of gays and lesbians have been expelled from the military for violating it. In May, 79% of Americans surveyed in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll supported allowing openly gay people to serve in the military, while 18% opposed it.