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For 17 years, since Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell became law, those who support the exclusion of gay and lesbian servicemembers have stated that the opinions of military leaders is what matters most in deciding whether and when to repeal DADT.  Today, Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff testified before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee that “my personal belief is that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly is the right thing to do." Secretary of Defense Gates also testified that he “fully supports” President Obama’s pledge to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Sen. Chambliss, who sits on the SASC,  stated during today’s hearing that "the military must maintain policies that exclude persons whose presence in the armed forces would create unacceptable risk to the armed forces' high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion." And "the presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would very likely create an unacceptable risk to those high standards."

We find it troubling that Senator Chambliss appears to be now disregarding the opinions of the military’s highest ranking leaders in his attempt to justify the continuation of a policy of bigotry and discrimination in our armed forces.

Admiral Mullen testified today that lifting the ban is a matter of “integrity.”

We hope that Sen. Chambliss will show the same integrity and change his position to support strengthening our military by repealing DADT.

We also hope that Sen. Chambliss will support the almost 34,000 gay and lesbian Veterans in the state of Georgia, whom he represents (Urban Institute, 2004).