EDGE Providence

The third in an EDGE series on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

EDGE surveyed members of one state’s congressional delegation on their positions on repealing the ban on gays in the military.

Rhode Island’s two congressmen want Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to become history. The state’s two senators have differing views.

There’s a bill in Congress to do away with the ban. Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., is the primary sponsor of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which has 109 co-sponsors.

Both Congressmen Patrick Kennedy and Jim Langevin are co-sponsors of the legislation to repeal the ban.

Sen. Jack Reed does not favor repeal at this time, but believes it’s time for the issue to be discussed.

Where does Sen. Lincoln Chafee stand? Don’t ask.

Chafee is undergoing a serious primary challenge from a conservative Republican in September. If he survives that, he’ll be in a tough race against a Democrat in November. Polling by Brown University shows his support now stands at 40 percent, a serious problem for an incumbent, according to Darrell West, the professor who undertook the poll.

A source told EDGE that Chafee came out in favor of repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell on Veterans Day 2005 when asked by NBC 10, a Rhode Island TV channel. His support for lifting the ban would make Chafee the first Republican to do so, which would certainly position him favorably among the state’s GLBT voters.

The trouble is, aside from a conversation in February with his openly gay press secretary, Stephen Hourahan, EDGE has not been able to learn the senator’s opinion directly, although Hourahan did confirm that Chafee told NBC he favors repeal.

EDGE tried unsuccessfully to get a statement or, better yet, a phone interview, which would have provided an opportunity to ask follow-up questions. For example, if he favors repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, how did Chafee arrive at that decision? Did he consult the Pentagon to determine how receptive the military would be to doing away with the ban? Would he sponsor a Senate version of the bill?

On Feb. 15, Hourahan e-mailed EDGE. The tersely worded message read, “Senator Chafee has stated his position on this issue and has no further comment.”

EDGE asked the campaign of Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey, who is running against Chafee in the September Republican primary, about his position. “We’re not interested in commenting right now” was the response of campaign press secretary Nachama Soloveichik.

EDGE contacted Secretary of State Matt Brown and former Attorney General and U.S. Attorney Sheldon Whitehouse, two of the candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in the September 2006 primary.

“I think that would be a good thing to repeal it,” Brown told EDGE in a phone interview. “I don’t think anyone who serves should be discriminated against. I would vote to repeal if I were in the Senate.”

“I believe that gays and lesbians should be able to serve openly in the military,” Whitehouse said in a statement to EDGE. “I do not believe that discrimination in any form should be tolerated. Gays and lesbians already serve honorably in our military. They should be able to do so openly.”

EDGE also sought out the reaction to Chafee’s position of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, the GLBT group advocating for gays in the military.

“We think that that is welcome news,” C. Dixon Osburn, SLDN executive director, said in a phone interview. “I think that there have been a number of people in the Senate who have been on the record for some time. Certainly he is one of the first Republicans in the Senate [to do so]. We hope that this will encourage his colleagues to start thinking about the issue.”

If Chafee is flat out against the ban on gays in the armed forces, he’s one step ahead of Democrat Reed, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

In a statement to EDGE, the Rhode Island senior senator who’s the Democrats’ point man on the war in Iraq—he’s visited the war zone seven times—equivocated somewhat:

“I feel that military service should be based on love of country and absolute fidelity to the rules which govern the Armed Forces and not exclusively on the private conduct of military members. We all recognize that there is an important moral dimension in military service, but that moral dimension is not defined by sexual orientation.”

Reed went on to state that he considers a debate over the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy unlikely in the Bush administration. “But, in the face of the war in Iraq and our efforts against terrorism, I believe the Department of Defense should begin an examination of the impact of the policy on our military capabilities.”

The senator thinks the Pentagon “should undertake a comprehensive diversity training program with a meaningful anti-gay harassment training model to ensure that the policy is applied fairly and consistently.”

As a graduate of West Point who reached the rank of captain and served in Vietnam, Reed said he knows “the difficulties and complexities inherent in command. Therefore, I do not underestimate the challenge that we face to accommodate all Americans who sincerely and patriotically want to serve.”

No such beating around the “Bush” with Langevin and Kennedy. Both are original co-sponsors of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act.

If passed, the bill “would eliminate a policy that is not only discriminatory but also dangerous to our military’s ability to perform essential missions,” Congressman Langevin said in a statement to EDGE.

His office mentioned a recent Government Accountability Office report that found that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has cost at least $200 million and deprived the military of such essential skills as language proficiency and intelligence analysis.

“It is unbelievable that, at a time when we are calling up our Guard and Reservists for multiple deployments and activating the Individual Ready Reserve, we are discharging thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines because of personal characteristics that have no bearing on their ability to serve effectively,” Langevin stated. “So, not only are we doing the right thing, it also happens to be good common sense. Public opinion supports the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and even the military courts are starting to question the policy’s legal foundations. We must never abandon a cause that is just--because, with enough energy and passion, we will ultimately prevail.”

In a Feb. 10 phone interview with EDGE, Congressman Kennedy cited national security reasons for doing away with the ban on gays. “We need the best and the brightest in our military and it makes no sense whatsoever to be practicing discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation when it has nothing to ability,” he emphasized.

“I’ve always been a big believer that our country’s strength is in its people and people shouldn’t be arbitrarily discriminated against,” Kennedy continued. “We cannot afford to be losing the best people.”

Like Langevin, Kennedy noted he has been working with the SLDN “so that I don’t do anything that isn’t vetted by them. Sometimes your best friends can become your worst enemies. We’re working off the same sheet of music.”

The congressman said passage of the repeal bill isn’t as daunting as some observers think: “The Republican leadership is in a bind because the merits of the issue are so strong on the national security side that they cannot argue for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell when it’s costing us vital strength in our military’s capacities in a number of areas including special operations forces and Arabic translators.”

Delaying a vote until after the November mid-term elections when control of Congress may be wrested away from the Republicans is not the answer, Kennedy added. “We buried [Coretta Scott King] one of the great founding mothers of our country this week. If she or her husband were to have not moved forward because they thought they were going to lose, then we never would have gotten to where we are today. What’s right is right. We just need to keep working, and ultimately our position will be vindicated.”

For more information, visit www.sldn.org the web site of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.