Political Quotes

“The Armed Services Committee held two excellent hearings to consider the final report of the working group that reviewed the issues associated with the repeal of don't ask, don't tell. That report concluded that allowing gay and lesbian troops to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces, without being forced to conceal their sexual orientation, would present a low risk to the military's effectiveness, even during a time of war, and that 70 percent of the surveyed members believe the impact on their units would be positive, mixed, or of no consequence. As one servicemember told the working group: All I care about is can you carry a gun, can you walk the post. In combat, the troops have told us that what matters is doing the job. We also learned during the course of our hearings that while predictions of problems after repeal were higher in combat units than among troops, this commission found that the difference disappeared among those who had actual experience serving on the front lines with gay colleagues; that is, experience is a powerful antidote to negative stereotypes about gay service members. We learned that when our close allies, Great Britain and Canada, were preparing to allow open service by gay and lesbian troops, there were concerns about problems there. Those concerns totally disappeared after they changed their policy to allow service, but those concerns--that level of concern in our allies' armies was higher than the current level of concern in our troops.…”