It's time to end DADT

From the Service Member's Legal Defense Network :

Movement To End Ban

• In addition to President Obama reiterating his campaign promise to repeal DADT and calling it urgent,* 177 members of the House of Representatives have signed on to the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (MREA).
• The MREA, championed by Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA), repeals current law and replaces it with a policy of non-discrimination.
• Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Shalikashvili, USA (Ret.), is among the more than 100 retired admirals and generals who support repeal.

Military Attitudes

• 73 percent of military personnel are comfortable with lesbians and gays (Zogby International, 2006).
• The younger generations, those who fight America's 21st century wars, largely don't care about whether someone is gay or not-and they do not link job performance with sexual orientation.
• One in four U.S. troops who served in Afghanistan or Iraq knows a member of their unit who is gay (Zogby, 2006).

The Public Overwhelmingly Supports Lifting the Ban

• Majorities of weekly churchgoers (60 percent), conservatives (58 percent), and Republicans (58 percent) now favor repeal (Gallup, 2009).
• Seventy-five percent of Americans support gays serving openly - up from just 44 percent in 1993 (ABC News/Washington Post, 2008).

Ban Hurts Military Readiness

• The U.S. must recruit and retain the greatest number of the best and brightest-especially during two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• The military has discharged almost 800 mission-critical troops and at least 59 Arabic and nine Farsi linguists under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in the last five years.

For more information about ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" go to The Service Member's Legal Defense Network.