The Advocate’s Kerry Eleveld reports that U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings has gathered together 76 other members of the House to join him in asking President Obama halt Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell investigations:
[W]e ask that you direct the Armed Services not to initiate any investigation of service personnel to determine their sexual orientation, and that you instruct them to disregard third party accusations that do not allege violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That is, we request that you impose that no one is asked and that you ignore, as the law requires, third parties who tell. Under your leadership, Congress must then repeal and replace Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell with a policy of inclusion and non-discrimination. This bilateral strategy would allow our openly gay and lesbian service members to continue serving our country and demonstrate our nation’s lasting commitment to justice and equality for all.
Thanks go out to Ohio Reps. Marcia Fudge and Dennis Kucinich, who were the only members of Ohio’s delegation to sign the letter. A call is in to Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s office to find out whether this was just an oversight.
[LAW DORK EXCLUSIVE UPDATE: From Rep. Kilroy's spokesman:
Rep. Kilroy is a co-sponsor of legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Mr. Hastings’ letter didn’t come across our desk, but the Congresswoman strongly supports the spirit of it. As she told the Human Rights Campaign dinner last Saturday in Columbus, she was proud to co-sponsor the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act and will continue working with the GLBT community as she has her entire career.
Although it would have been great, obviously, to have her name on the letter, I'm glad to know that she "strongly supports the spirit of it." Thanks for the quick response from her office on this!]
[FURTHER UPDATE: To clarify, when asked if she would have signed Rep. Hastings' letter had it "come across [her] desk, Rep. Kilroy’s spokesman said: “Of course.”]
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Chris Geidner is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who writes at Law Dork, is the senior political writer at Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications. An extended biography can be found