Support grows in Congress for DADT repeal

Five more members of Congress have signed on as co-sponsors of a bill that would repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell', the ban on gays serving openly in the military. That brings the number of so-sponsors of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act to 136. "With every new lawmaker who signs on we are one step closer to repealing this discriminatory policy that has been preventing otherwise qualified men and women from serving our country and contributing to the finest fighting force in the world," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), the lead sponsor of the bill. The new co-sponsors are Reps. Al Green (D-TX), Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL), Ron Klein (D-FL), Patrick J. Murphy (D-PA) and Mike Thompson (D-CA). Congressman Murphy is an Iraq war veteran and former West Point professor elected to the House in 2006. He also is a former JAG Corps attorney, and served two deployments after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 -- the first to Bosnia in 2002 and the second to Baghdad, Iraq in 2003-2004 as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division. For his service, Capt. Murphy earned the Bronze Star for service and his unit earned the Presidential Unit Citation. "Congressman Murphy, a respected voice on military matters and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, will be an irreplaceable ally in our work to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,'" said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network in a statement. "His support sends a strong message that those who know our armed forces best also understand that ending this law is the right thing to do for our military and our country." DADT was enacted in 1993. Since then more than 12,000 servicemembers have been dismissed when it was learned they are gay. According to statistics from the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network which advocates for gays in the military an average of two service members are dismissed under the law every day. A report prepared by the Government Accountability Office shows that nearly 800 people with skills deemed 'mission-critical' by the Pentagon have been dismissed under the law, including more than 322 language experts, at least 58 of whom specialized in Arabic. The GAO said that DADT has cost American taxpayers more than $364 million since it was implemented. The number of gays and lesbians who have attempted to enlist and rejected because they said they were gay is not known. A study conducted last year for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network concluded that the US military could attract as many as 41,000 new recruits if gays and lesbians in the military were able to be open about their sexual orientation. A Zogby poll taken in 2006 showed three-out-of-four members of the military who are serving in Iraq or recently returned home don't care if someone in their unit is gay. The poll, taken for the Michael D. Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, also found that nearly one in four US troops say they know for sure that someone in their unit is gay or lesbian, and of those 59% said they learned about the person's sexual orientation directly from the individual.