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CHRIS JOHNSON
Friday, August 01, 2008
Activists
who
participated
in
the
1993
congressional
hearings
on
“Don’t
Ask,
Don’t
Tell”
and
saw
last
week’s
testimony
on
the
policy,
say
they
noticed
stark
differences
in
rhetoric
and
tone
between
the
two
hearings.
Witnesses
on
both
sides
of
the
controversial
issue,
testified
July
23
before
the
personnel
subcommittee
of
the
House
Armed
Services
Committee.
Opponents
of
“Don’t
Ask,
Don’t
Tell”
said
the
gay
former
service
members
who
testified
before
Congress
—
Marine
Corps
Staff
Sgt.
Eric
Alva
and
Navy
Capt.
Joan
Darrah
—
were
excellent
spokespersons
for
the
cause
of
repealing
the
policy.
Lawmakers
commended
the
two
former
service
members
during
the
hearing
for
their
role
in
the
armed
forces.
But
those
defending
the
law,
particularly
Elaine
Donnelly,
were
ridiculed
for
holding
extreme
and
anti-gay
views.
Rep.
Ellen
Tauscher
(D-Calif.),
the
lead
sponsor
for
the
Military
Readiness
Enhancement
Act,
which
would
allow
gays
to
serve
openly,
said
Donnelly
was
using
the
term
“eligibility”
to
discriminate
against
gays
wanting
to
serve.
Rep.
Patrick
Murphy
(D-Pa.),
a
former
Army
officer,
described
Donnelly’s
testimony
as
an
“insult”
because
she
was
suggesting
that
service
members
were
not
professional
enough
to
handle
gay
troops
in
their
units.
Criticism
of
Donnelly
was
not
limited
to
lawmakers.
Dana
Milbank’s
July
24
column
in
the
Washington
Post
was
particularly
harsh.
Milbank
said
Donnelly’s
testimony
“achieved
the
opposite
of
her
intended
effect”
and
“had
the
effect
of
increasing
bipartisan
sympathy”
for
repealing
the
law
barring
open
service.
Aubrey
Sarvis,
executive
director
of
Servicemembers
Legal
Defense
Network
(SLDN),
told
the
Blade
that
Donnelly’s
testimony
during
the
hearing
was
so
outlandish
that
he
was
pleased
the
committee
called
her
as
a
witness.
Donnelly
not
only
supports
current
law,
but
also
argues
that
recruiters
should
ask
enlistees
about
their
sexual
orientation
before
they
enter
the
military
to
prevent
gays
from
donning
uniforms.
“I
think
that
when
Elaine
Donnelly
speaks
…
her
comments
defy
any
rational
basis
for
retaining
‘Don’t
Ask,
Don’t
Tell,’”
Sarvis
said.
Donnelly,
smarting
from
the
treatment
she
received
from
lawmakers,
told
the
Blade
the
way
the
subcommittee
conducted
the
hearing
was
“unfortunate”
because
lawmakers
were
more
interested
in
deriding
her
than
listening
to
her
views.
“We
were
there
to
raise
new
issues,
new
questions,
but
it
was
very
clear
the
committee
was
not
interested
in
hearing
what
we
were
there
to
say,”
she
said.
“The
bullying
that
went
on
…
it
was
just
inappropriate.
It
was
not
a
proud
day
in
the
history
of
that
armed
services
committee.”
But
the
situation
was
the
reverse
in
1993,
with
supporters
of
gays
serving
openly
in
the
military
being
ridiculed
and
proponents
of
a
ban
seeming
more
mainstream.
During
the
1993
hearings,
gay
activists
accused
Sam
Nunn,
a
Georgia
Democrat
who
was
then
chair
of
the
Senate
Armed
Services
Committee,
of
orchestrating
the
hearings
to
make
a
ban
on
open
service
seem
like
a
necessity.
The
1993
hearings
in
the
House
Armed
Services
Committee,
then
chaired
by
Ronald
Dellums
of
California,
a
Democrat
who
was
in
favor
of
gays
serving
openly,
were
seen
as
more
balanced
but
still
somewhat
hostile
toward
gays.
House
and
Senate
lawmakers
held
about
14
hearings
on
the
issue
and
heard
testimony
from
more
than
50
witnesses.
Few
witnesses
were
advocates
of
open
service.
Nunn
had
a
number
of
“field
hearings”
at
a
naval
base
in
Norfolk,
Va.
In
one
such
1993
hearing,
the
former
senator
toured
the
sleeping
quarters
of
a
submarine,
pointing
out
that
gay
and
straight
service
members
would
be
in
close
contact
in
small
spaces
where
bunk
beds
were
crammed
together.
At
another
field
hearing,
Nunn
was
criticized
for
allowing
more
than
1,000
sailors
to
jeer
as
Lt.
Tracy
Thorne,
an
openly
gay
Navy
pilot,
testified
in
favor
of
allowing
gays
in
the
military.
Army
Lt.
Gen.
Calvin
A.
H.
Waller,
the
second-in-command
during
the
first
Persian
Gulf
War
and
a
military
witness,
at
one
point
embarrassed
lawmakers
in
1993
by
hypothetically
talking
about
them
as
gay.
William
Cohen,
then
a
senator
from
Maine,
asked
Waller
what
he
would
do
with
a
soldier
who
said
he
was
gay
but
had
not
engaged
in
sexual
activity.
Waller
suggested
he
refer
to
this
hypothetical
soldier
as
“Cohen,”
producing
a
big
laugh
in
the
chambers
and
a
red
face
on
the
senator.
So
Waller
suggested
“Nunn,”
referring
to
committee
chair,
and
produced
another
laugh.
Finally,
he
landed
upon
another
way
to
refer
to
the
soldier:
“buttpucker.”
Waller
said
he
would
initiate
discharge
proceedings
against
“buttpucker.”
Lawrence
Korb,
now
a
research
fellow
at
the
Center
for
American
Progress
and
once
assistant
secretary
of
defense
for
manpower
for
President
Reagan,
testified
at
a
1993
Senate
hearing
in
favor
of
allowing
gays
to
serve
openly
and
recalled
the
antagonistic
atmosphere
during
the
hearing.
“What
happened
back
in
1993
when
I
testified,
I
was
one
of
the
few
people
supporting
the
change,”
he
said.
“The
hearing
was
very
contentious
and
downright
hostile.”
Faced
with
serious
questions
about
“sexual
tension,”
“conceptually
erotic
relationships”
between
service
members
and
the
“profound
intimacy”
of
military
settings,
Korb
and
other
witnesses
were
forced
to
sit
through
a
hearing
that
lasted
five
hours.
Korb
said
his
argument
for
open
service
put
him
“on
the
defensive
for
most
of
the
questions”
because
the
notion
of
prohibiting
gays
in
the
military
was
“conventional
wisdom”
at
the
time.
Statements
made
by
witnesses
included
many
of
the
same
points
that
Donnelly
made
before
lawmakers
last
week,
he
said.
“When
the
other
two
people
who
testified
with
me
made
many
of
the
same
points
that
Elaine
Donnelly
made
—
they
were
not
challenged
on
it,”
he
said.
Korb
said
he
took
heat
during
the
hearing
for
speculating
that
10
percent
of
service
members
are
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