SBIR/STTR Reauthorization Act of 1999--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, it is time to stop discrimination. It is time to repeal don't ask, don't tell. This is a policy that should have been repealed long ago--long ago. It should have been repealed for its discriminatory nature. It should have been repealed because the Defense Department's own report makes it clear that those who pointlessly cling to this discriminatory, wrongheaded, shortsighted policy, by claiming the mantle of national security, have absolutely no ground--no ground--to stand on.

Don't ask, don't tell is a ridiculous notion, a bad policy, and a relic of a bygone era. It is keeping brave, able, educated, technically skilled, multilingual, trained soldiers, men and women who want nothing more than to defend their country from doing so.

We are preventing them from making our military even stronger, making it better, and contributing to what we need in a modern military force. In my view, a vote to repeal this antiquated policy is a smart vote. It is the right vote. It is the fair vote. It is a just vote. It is a vote to keep our military strong, keep good people in the military, who want to serve.

Americans who now must remain anonymous, such as an anonymous marine currently serving in Afghanistan says:

So far the military has been my source of work and income for the last 6 years. I don't want that all taken away from me and me being discharged anything but honorably.

He says:

We face the same challenges as all other marines or soldiers but with an extra burden.

Or another anonymous servicemember--a decorated Midwesterner, a shining example of an American marine, with a chest full of ribbons--like others, he risked his life, but, like other marines denying who they are, he was deeply apprehensive about seeking the medical care he needed when he got home for fear of being ousted and losing everything he had worked and sacrificed for, everything he had served for.

He suffered in silence, careful in whom he confided, saying:

You never know who you can trust.

An Arabic linguist--someone whose talents we sorely need against some of the enemies we have today--named Bleu Copas was discharged under don't ask, don't tell, even though he was never identified as gay and his accuser never revealed himself. Imagine that, in a country that values the rule of law and justice, that your accuser never has to reveal themselves, never be subject to cross-examination, never testing the veracity, the truthfulness of what they are saying, and yet have this person be discharged.

This is no way to run a military. We are talking about patriots. We are talking about men and women who want to serve, who are serving, who yearn to serve, who put their lives on the line.

When a C-17 from the 436th Airlift Wing flies into Dover, DE, when rows of flag-draped coffins fill a hangar and the solemn dignity of fallen heroes brings silence and tears to all of us as a nation, do we ask the faith, the color, the sexual preference under those flags? I think not.

Listen to the arguments and rationale of those military leaders who know best.

Former Secretary of the Army Clifford Alexander said:

The policy is an absurdity and borderlines on being an obscenity. What it does is cause people to ask of themselves that they lie to themselves, that they pretend to be something that they are not. There is no empirical evidence that would indicate that it affects military cohesion.

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Shalikashvili, said:

Within the military, the climate has changed dramatically since 1993. .....

Conversations I've held with servicemembers make clear that, while the military remains a traditional culture, that tradition no longer requires banning open service by gays.

Three-star Retired LTG Claudia Kennedy said:

Army values are taught to soldiers from their earliest days in the Army. Those values are: Loyalty, duty, mutual respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. We teach our soldiers that these are the values we expect them to live up to.

She goes on to say:

I believe that as an institution, our military needs to live up to the values we demand of the servicemembers. .....

Military leaders need to respect all servicemembers. We need to recognize that loyalty and selfless service are exhibited equally, by servicemembers of every color, gender and sexual orientation.

I think about her words ``selfless service.'' When you voluntarily, in an all-volunteer military, come forth as an American and say: I want to serve my country, I am willing to put my life in harm's way in behalf of the defense of the Nation and my fellow Americans, does that somehow get diminished--that selfless service get diminished--because you are gay?

I think about personal courage. When you are on the battlefield, and you are being shot at, and when you are protecting those who are in your company, and when you are injured, and when you are bleeding, does that personal courage get diminished because you are gay?

Certainly not. Certainly not.

And most convincingly, and to the point, Retired Navy VADM and U.S. Congressman JOE SESTAK said this:

We have to correct this. It's just not right. I can remember being out there in command, and someone would come up to you and start to tell you--and you just want to say, no, I don't want to lose you, you're too good, [too valuable].

Let's take the advice of these military leaders who know that this is a bad policy and it should be repealed. It is a policy that the Pentagon report itself says, if repealed, presents little risk to military readiness and cohesion, and little effect on morale.

In fact, 62 percent of servicemembers responded to the Pentagon's own survey that repeal of don't ask, don't tell would have a positive or no effect on morale.

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