Issue Paper: Repeal of "Don't ask, don't tell"

For 17 long, painstakingly prejudice years, the gay community has not been able to openly serve the United States. This little policy is what’s known as “Don’t ask, don’t tell”, in which gays can only be involved in the military as long as they remain secretive about it. Just recently the issue of repealing this law was quite the heated debate in congress, but it did not pass and the entire homosexual body is all up in arms over this matter. Now, what is the reasoning behind this? Well, really, the conflicting views of the Democrats and Republicans are mostly to blame, as well as the sneaky insertion of a totally unrelated law that’s been trying to get passed for 9 years now.

The thing is, Republicans have been for this bill (against the repealing of it) since it was originally instated. Now, most recently, not more than a week ago, the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” was denied by Republicans mostly because of the inclusion of the DREAM Act. The DREAM act, which basically grants permanent citizenship to illegal immigrants if they serve in the military for at least two years and fulfill other minimal requirements, has always been very strongly opposed by Republicans since its incarnation. Chances are, because of the opposition to illegals by Republicans, and the inclusion of the DREAM Act into the “don’t ask, don’t tell” potential repeal, are reasons why gays still cannot openly serve in the military.

The Democrats, on the other hand, have always been advocating the repeal of this bill since incarnation. Obviously, being much more liberally minded, their views would be reflected as such. Not only that, but Democrats have also been promoting the DREAM Act since its introduction way back in 2001. If this bill were to have been passed it would have most definitely been a huge win for the Democrats as a whole…Which is most likely why there was only one Democrat who voted no on it. What’s rather unfortunate about all of this is that the vast majority of Americans believe that the entire “don’t ask don’t tell” business should be done away with, yet the government still keeps it in place. Even pop star Lady GaGa has gone on to lead a massive following of people to get this blasted bill repealed.

I think what many don’t realize when addressing the issue as it stands today, is that there were matters of illegal immigration inserted into the bill (as Congress likes to do), and they instead only focus on the “don’t ask, don’t tell” part, demanding that it is pivotal for that to be repealed. It’s bills like this that would make moderate liberals go “AAHHH! WHAT DO I DO?” Unfortunately for the gay community, it is expected that the number of Democrats in congress will decrease in this year’s campaign and thus it will be even more difficult for the law to be repealed any time within the near future.