Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) will co-sponsor legislation to repeal the military’s ban on gays, the New York Daily News reports.
“Next week, the Connecticut senator will announce that he’s taking the lead on repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the 1993 law that prohibits gay people from serving openly in the armed forces,” writes Daily News columnist James Kirchick.
Lieberman told the Kirchick that allowing gays to serve openly would provide them “an equal opportunity to do whatever job their talents and sense of purpose and motivations lead them to want to do – including military service.”
When you artificially limit the pool of people who can enlist then you are diminishing military effectiveness.
Lieberman said he sees repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell as “the next step of the civil rights movement.”
What matters is not the gender of the other person in your unit or the color or the religion or in this case the sexual orientation. It’s whether that person is a good soldier you can depend on. And that’s why I think it’s going to work.
Late Update: Lieberman has officially announced his intent to introduce this legislation.
I will be proud to be a sponsor of the important effort to enable patriotic gay Americans to defend our national security and our founding values of freedom and opportunity. I have opposed the current policy of preventing gay Americans from openly serving in the military since its enactment in 1993. To exclude one group of Americans from serving in the armed forces is contrary to our fundamental principles as outlined in the Declaration of Independence and weakens our defenses by denying our military the service of a large group of Americans who can help our cause. I am grateful for the leadership of President Obama to repeal the policy and the support of Secretary Gates and Chief of Staff Admiral Mullen.
