PRESS RELEASE

Statement on Department of Defense Report on DADT Repeal

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Jim Moran, Northern Virginia Democrat, issued the following statement regarding the Defense Department’s release of the new report studying whether and how to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

“Today’s release of the Defense Department's study of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has come to the conclusion so many previous reports have reached: that DADT provides no benefit to our military and is preventing highly qualified Americans from serving their country in the Armed Forces. 

“Those reacting to the report with calls for more delay, more inaction, hearken back to the procedural barriers that blocked civil rights legislation for nearly a century after emancipation. They are as wrong today as they were then. We have successfully lifted bans on African Americans and women serving in the military. For 17 years this issue has been debated and studied to death. Now is the time for that final plank of discrimination to be pried loose.

“The report, backed by Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs Admiral Mullen, found that the U.S. military can orderly transition to a non-discriminatory policy without harming unit cohesion, recruitment and retention, and overall military readiness.  The Working Group was thorough, their review sound, based on interviews with more the 115,000 service members around the world.

“We cannot undo the wrongs gay and lesbian service members have endured under DADT -- including the 14,000 troops discharged, nor recoup the hundreds of millions in lost recruitment and training costs.  Our allies around the world have adopted this policy without disruption. Secretary Gates himself was directly involved with lifting a ban on open service in the CIA almost two decades ago. The moment is now to ensure no American will ever again be forced to compromise their integrity in order to defend our country. ”

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