GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE July 29, 2011

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www.GayPeoplesChronicle.com

'Don't ask, don't tell' to end on September 20

by Anthony Glassman

Washington, D.C.-In less than two months, the Pentagon's so-called "don't ask, don't tell" will meet its end, 18 years after being approved as a compromise measure by President Bill Clinton.

President Barack Obama certified to Congress on July 22 that the conditions have been met for repealing the law. His certification follows that of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Adm. Mike Mullen.

Certification by the three is a requirement of the repeal law passed in December.

"Now, we are 60 days away from the moment when DADT becomes history," said Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett. "As President Obama said at last year's signing ceremony, 'No longer will tens of thousands of Americans in uniform be asked to live a lie, or look over their shoulder, in order to serve the country that they love."

Jarrett continued, "Repeal also strengthens national security. As Secretary Panetta pointed out . patriotic Americans with valuable military experience and skills will no longer be forced out of the armed services, just for being gay or lesbian."

"Certification does not mark the end of our work," said Mullen. "Ready" though we are, we owe it to ourselves and to the nation we defend to continue to train the remainder of the joint force, to monitor our performance as we do so, and to adjust policy where and when needed."

The repeal legislation also called for changes to official Pentagon policies and training the military forces in the new policies. That process has been underway since early this year, and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates noted in June, just before his departure, that he expected certification in July or August.

Panetta also weighed in on repeal. "With this certification, and in accordance with the law, on September 20, 'don't ask, don't tell' will be repealed;" he said. "We will have taken the time necessary to get this done right and to ensure that service members are properly trained for a change that I believe is essential to the effectiveness of our all-volunteer force."

"This certification decision was carefully made after receiving input from the service chiefs, service secretaries and from all the combatant commanders, who stated their views that the force is prepared for this change," he said.

East Cleveland

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conciliation, it gives the person filing the complaint the right to file a lawsuit.

The Stonewall Democrats began endorsing in East Cleveland in the 2009 election cycle, and found strong, if unfocused, support for LGBT equality.

"Everyone seemed to agree that, to the extent that they understood the issues, they were proponents of LGBT rights," Huff said, "using the fairness quotient, as I like to call it."

She described the fairness quotient as being, when one describes a situation, the likelihood that someone says, "That isn't right!"

Along with their endorsements, the Stonewall Democrats pledged to help the officials in East Cleveland develop legislation protecting the rights of LGBT people.

Huff drafted the ordinance and gave it to city council.

"City council takes it to the law director for vetting to see if there's anything in conflict with other ordinances or the constitution of Ohio or the United States Constitution," Huff noted.

She pointed out that Ronald K. Riley, the law director, had two issues with the proposed ordinance. The first was the size of the commission, which Huff envisioned as a 15person board that could rotate as five groups of three or three groups of five. Since East Cleveland is relatively small, Riley thought 15 members was unusually large.

The second concern was that, since the state of Ohio's Civil Rights Commission can investigate claims of discrimination based on race, gender and disability already, people whose state investigations went against them would then turn to the city to give them another chance to file their complaints.

The ordinance was changed to decrease the size of the commission and to limit the amount of time in which someone could file a complaint, which should eliminate the possibility of those already protected under state law from "double-dipping" on civil rights claims.

"Those were the only questions, the only push-back that I got," Huff noted. "It was

clear that he had read the whole thing, it was clear that the city council read the whole thing. Each one of them, and they don't necessarily get along with each other."

According to Huff, council president Joy Jordan had a "friendly fight" with vicepresident Chantelle Lewis over which of them got to be the sponsor of the ordinance. While Lewis was unable to attend the July 19 meeting, she sent along a message of her support for it, saying, “I'm co-sponsor, right?"

In addition to the obvious benefit to the LGBT community, Huff believes the ordinance's unanimous passage in East Cleveland also carries an important lesson with it.

"This should put another crack in the presumption that black people are more homophobic than white people," she noted. "It just isn't true. We have a different style when we fuss about stuff."

"This ordinance is a wonderful nod to the friendliness of East Cleveland and how it welcomes everybody," she continued. "The

Cleveland Stonewall Democrats spent a couple years nurturing a relationship with the city and letting everyone get to know us."

Down the road, she hopes to see East Cleveland's LGBT-friendly actions bear fruit in revitalizing the city, as the Tremont and Gordon Square areas of Cleveland saw increased investment and opportunity.

East Cleveland is now one of seventeen Ohio cities-containing over a fifth of the state's population-that include sexual orientation in their civil rights codes, and one of a dozen that include gender identity. Most of these include employment, housing and public accommodations, and some include ethnic intimidation, education, union practices and other areas. The measures in Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights and Lakewood do not include employment or public accommodations.

No Ohio or federal civil rights law includes any protections for sexual orientation or gender identity, although laws in 21 other states and the District of Columbia do.

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