DADT repeal does not advance LGBTQ civil liberties

By: Bobby Joe Bracy Jr. / Staff Writer

It surprises me that the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is considered a victory for civil rights. During the public debates over the soundness of DADT, activist Dan Choi, as a guest on “Democracy Now!”, defended his involvement with the United States military by unflinchingly declaring that “war gives us meaning.”
I wonder how anyone like Lt. Choi can say that with a straight face — no pun intended.

What I find even more surprising is that Choi could make such a pro-war comment just feet away from respected liberal journalist Amy Goodman without rebuke or further questioning by her.

Last year,  MSNBC political commentator Rachel Maddow used her pulpit to rebuke Republicans for blocking the repeal of DADT with filibusters. “The right wants a culture war against gay people… that’s a war that anti-gay politicians lose and pro-civil rights politicians win,” says Maddow.

I respect Maddow, but she is wrong.

As civil rights advocates, we should reject the framing of the DADT repeal as a wholesale pro-civil rights issue. Nothing is more damning of civil rights than the institution of war — and repealing DADT changed nothing about that.

Funneling more troops, regardless of orientation, into unjust wars does not advance our civil liberties. The environment we liberal queers find ourselves in — one that glorifies military service — is the environment where we find the PATRIOT Act, the suspension of habeas corpus and the assassination of American citizens without due process of law. It is in this environment where presidents, both Democratic and Republican, can commit troops to combat without a formal declaration of war from Congress.

To feed the war machine, we toss our freedoms into the furnace. By repealing DADT and joining the military, we now fling our bodies into that fire.

We have lost our way as a collective movement for justice. It puzzles me why some in the LGBTQ community want to fight wars for a queer/trans/homophobic government that still considers our kind second-class citizens. We can be sent to the front lines of foreign nations to witness death in war, but we are still not allowed to be with our loved ones in their final moments back home.

Repealing DADT was deceptively framed as pro-civil rights, but regardless of how you “reform” the input side of the military, the output end is still the same: wanton raids on innocent people, drone strikes and torture still goes on in our name.

Going to war is, arguably, a choice. Yet, every day the autonomy of that “choice” is diminished.  Military recruiters often recruit from underprivileged communities. One look at the Department of Defense’s numbers tells it all: Nearly two-thirds, 64 percent, of recruits come from counties that have average incomes lower than the national median.

So, joining the military is a choice, but it is a choice you’re about half as likely to make when you have other options. It’s nefarious that our government makes budget cuts against education and financial aid, yet increases defense spending and sells us the military as a career move.

For LGBTQ people who might still be considering the military as a career “choice,” I must warn you: according to The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, about one-third of all homeless people in the U.S. are veterans, and about 1.5 million more veterans are at risk of homelessness “due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.” Were those “benefits” really worth fighting for?

This is less about so-called “choice” and more about resisting militarism. Militarism is not a progressive stance for the flourishing of queer life. Queers are blown to bits by drone strikes, but our government won’t tell us how many civilians we’ve killed with that program, so good luck finding out.

That’s why the LGBTQ movement for justice needs to shift course. Instead of begging to be assimilated into the hetero-normative war machine and the failed model of marriage, let’s focus back on the causes that truly bring justice to our communities, like increasing access to HIV therapy for low-income communities, resisting employment discrimination of transgendered Americans and the end of militarism.

Repealing DADT was not a “mission accomplished.” We must not be pacified. Boys, girls and the glorious in-between: our war for equality has just begun.