Jorge Rivas
Obama Sends Handwritten Letter to Gay Soldier Ousted From the Military Promising to Repeal DADT
In January, Sandy Tsao, an army officer based out of St. Louis, MO, told her superiors that she is gay — a violation of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law. Tsao then wrote to President Obama, urging him to change the DADT policy: “I do hope, Mr. President, that you will help us to win the war against prejudice.” On May 5, Tsao received a handwritten letter from Obama with a pledge to repeal DADT at some point.
In the letter, Obama wrote that he is “committed to changing our current policy” but that “it will take some time to complete (partly because it needs Congressional action).” Yesterday, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), who has sponsored legislation repealing DADT, discussed the issue with Rachel Maddow, saying, “I’d like to see us move it by this summer, and I think we can.”
Posted at 9:42 AM, May 08, 2009 in Permalink | View Comments
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This feels so lovely (Obama has such nice handwriting!), but contrast that with the news from HuffPo, saying that Obama is "firing" his first gay officer in the military. The guy being fired is Dan Choi, a West Point grad who's fluent in Arabic. The piece points out that Obama's hands aren't entirely tied around this issue. He does have the power to influence the action by signing an executive order. We need to keep pushing Obama on this.
Posted by: Julianne | May 8, 2009 10:50 AM
Studies show that while Black and Hispanic women in same-sex couples are far more likely than those in married couples to serve in the military, women of color are also disproportionately discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. For example, although Hispanic women make up just .31% of servicemembers, they are .60% of those discharged. Overturning Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is a racial justice and gender issue as well as a gay rights issue.
Please see our reports ‘Hispanic and Latino Same-sex Couple Households in the United States’ and ‘Black Same-sex Headed Households in the United States’ for information. They can be found at www.thetaskforce.org.
Posted by: Somjen Frazer | May 13, 2009 12:28 PM