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Q-NOTES • FEBRUARY 12
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Congress passes resolution
supporting military's
discrimination in recruiting
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Liberal congress leaders and LGBT
advocates express outrage
by Steve Ralls
WASHINGTON, D.C. — By a vote of
327 to 84, the House of Representatives
passed a “Sense of Congress” resolution
Feb. 2, opposing a Third Circuit court deci
sion striking down the discriminatory
Solomon Amendment, which punishes uni
versities with gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender-inclusive, nondiscrimina
tion policies for holding military
recruiters to the same standards as
other recruiters.
In November the Third Circuit ruled
that Solomon, a law which forced univer
sities to violate nondiscrimination poli
cies that include sexual orientation by
allowing military recruiters on-campus
access to students, was unconstitution
al. The court found that the law
infringed on the free speech rights of law
schools that had sought to enforce their
nondiscrimination policies.
Those policies, the schools argued,
compelled them to prevent employers
who discriminate on the basis of sexu
al orientation from recruiting on cam
pus. The lawsuit was brought by
a coalition of 25 law schools and
universities, and supported by
Servicemembers Legal Defense
Network (SLDN).
The resolution states that “it is the
’ sense of Congress that the executive
branch should continue to pursue” an
appeal of the Third Circuit decision.
“Today’s so-called ‘Sense of
Congress’ makes no sense at all,” said
Sharra E. Greer, director of Law & Policy for
SLDN. “The military certainly has the right
— and the responsibility — to recruit the
best and brightest, but the best and bright
est should include lesbian, gay and bisex
ual students, too. That’s exactly why it
should abandon ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ If
Congress were truly concerned about
national security, it would focus its atten
tion on the talents of the nearly 10,000
lesbian, gay and bisexual service mem
bers who have been fired because of their
sexual orientation. It is the military’s ban,
and not the Third Circuit’s decision,
which is contrary to our national security
interests.”
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-
TX), in opposing the resolution, said that
“We must support our troops in accor
dance with the U.S. Constitution and with
respect for civil rights and fundamental
freedoms that are the rubric of this nation.”
Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-
Wl) who also opposed the resolution, stat
ed that “We should be looking at ways to
strengthen our military and expand our
resources for winning the fight against Al
Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.”
Baldwin went on to ask, “When will we
have the debate about the harm caused by
excluding many qualified, skilled Americans
from serving in our military simply because
they are gay or lesbian?”
“Congress should not be promoting a
policy that gives the military the go-ahead
to discriminate,” said HRC Political
Director Winnie Stachelberg. “This
amendment gives special permission to
the military to discriminate when private
sector recruiters can not. The real
employment issue in the military has to
do with retention not recruiting. One
solution is to allow gay, lesbian and
Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI): 'When
will we hove the debate about the harm caused
by excluding many qualified, skilled Americans
from serving in our military simply because they
are gay or lesbian?'
bisexual service members to serve openly
in the armed forces.
"This resolution seems directed at the
universities in court who are merely seek
ing their right to enforce nondiscrimination
policies,” added Stachelberg. “All available
evidence suggests that there are no short
ages in recruiting on campus. However,
there are shortages of trained and experi
enced service members. We should reform
the military’s current discriminatory
employment policy known as ‘Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell’ so that trained service members
aren’t needlessly discharged.”
According to a Dec. 16, 2004, article in
the Wall Street loumal, more than 52,000 are
now enrolled in Reserve Officers’ Training
Corps (ROTO programs, up from 48,000 in
2000. This past year, 70 percent of the
Army’s newly-commissioned officers came
from ROTC. in fact, the Defense
Department has reported meeting all its
recruiting and retention goals in the past
several years.
However, Department spokespeople
have recently underscored the shortage of
trained linguists and other specialties. The
New Republic reported in January 2005 that
between 1998 and 2004, the military dis
charged 20 Arabic and six Farsi language
speakers under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
policy.