don't ask don't tell compromise reached; possible vote this week

The American people don't want the American military to be used to advance a liberal political agenda. And House Republicans will stand on that principle.

- Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN)

Congress, led by Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA) and Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Joe Lieberman (CTL-CT), may act this week on legislation to repeal the U.S. military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, a 1993 law (thanks Bill!) that sanctions the official discrimination against LGBT servicepeople in the armed forces, and has resulted in over 13,500 service men and women being discharged from the military simply because they were gay.

No matter your stance on current levels or priorities of military funding, or the missions and pedagogy inherent in a military force, the undeniable fact is that the armed forces are pillars of modern American society, and as such have always been both reflective of the country's standing on various social issues as well as a potential site for better fulfilling the nation's progressive values. The armed forces served as an early institution where women found careers and merit-based promotion, with 2.5 million women serving in the armed forces since the American War for Independence. However, it has been the duly elected representatives of the American people, not the institutions of the armed forces themselves, that have brought about progress in the military. It was not the military itself, but the U.S. Congress that in 1941 forced the War Department and Army Air Corps to create an all-black combat unit, the Tuskegee Airmen (99th Fighter Squadron/332nd Fighter Group). The racial integration of the U.S. military forces after World War II by President Harry Truman (Executive Order 9981), 16 years before the Civil Rights Act, surely created a generation of veterans who had seen the possibilities of an integrated America and for whom the injustices and indignities of continued segregation in the civilian world was an unacceptable wrong worth fighting against.

So while Rep. Pence is factually incorrect with regard to how Americans feel about continued discrimination in the military based on sexual orientation (78% of Americans believe that openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the military), he is even more wrong in his understanding of the armed forces as an institution: it has long been and is a place that reflects Americans' willingness to put aside petty biases and bigotries as the country evolves and progresses.