Servicemembers United Statement
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Servicemembers United, the nation’s largest organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans, issued the following statement today regarding the announcement from the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that Senator Reid would allow the National Defense Authorization Act to come back to the Senate floor for reconsideration after the Thanksgiving recess, with the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ provision intact:
“We are pleased that Senator Reid has finally announced his intention to give this bill another chance at victory during the lame duck. We are hopeful that he will also allot the bill the two weeks of floor time necessary to overcome Republican obstruction,” said Alexander Nicholson, Executive Director of Servicemembers United and a former U.S. Army Human Intelligence Collector who was discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” “It remains concerning, however, that Senator Reid’s Office, in collaboration with the White House, saw the need to yet again punitively exclude the nation’s largest gay troop and vet organization from this meeting specifically because of our strong public pressure campaign on Senator Reid and the White House to do the right thing. If it takes giving any lawmaker a pass for a lack of leadership to get invited to a meeting, then we will happily continue our work from the outside. But the American public, and especially the LGBT community, have demonstrated clearly that they are disgusted with that sort of politics.”
For more information about Servicemembers United and “Don’t Ask, Dont’ Tell,” please visit www.ServicemembersUnited.org. For the most comprehensive collection of polling data, discharge statistics, academic works, legislative and congressional material, and more, visit www.DADTArchive.org.