At a boisterous White House gathering this morning, President Barack Obama signed a bill that, sometime next year, will formally end the 17-year-old policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” under which thousands of gay service members have been discharged from the U.S. armed forces.
The law signed by Obama this morning sets the stage for the termination of the law after the military leadership certifies to Congress that education and training requirements for the transition are in place
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Those details hardly seemed to matter this morning as the President’s signing speech was greeted with enthusiastic applause and interrupted by cheers from a large audience that included several former service members who’d fought against the controversial policy.
Among those invited was Spokane’s Margaret Witt, an Air Force Major who, in a landmark legal victory earlier this year, successfully challenged her discharge. Today’s Spokesman-Review has a priceless feature story by Jim Camden about how Witt got her invitation and was racing to get to Washington in time for today’s big event.
Here are President Obama’s remarks from this morning’s event:
So this morning I am proud to sign a law that will bring an end to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. This law I’m about to sign will strengthen our national security and uphold the ideals that our fighting men and women risk their lives to defend.
No longer will our country be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans who were forced to leave the military regardless of their skills, no matter their bravery or their zeal, no matter their years of exemplary performance, because they happen to be gay.
Some of you remember I visited Afghanistan just a few weeks ago and while I was walking along the rope line—there as a big crowd, about three thousand, a young woman in uniform was shaking my hand, and other people were grabbing and taking pictures, she pulled me into a hug and whispered in my ear, ‘get Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell done. And I said to her, ‘I promise you I will.’
For we are not a nation that says, ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ We are a nation that says ‘out of many we are one.’ We are a nation that welcomes the service of every patriot. We are a nation that believes all men and women are created equal. Those are the ideals that generations have fought for. Those are the ideals that we uphold today. And now it is my honor to sign this bill into law.
You can read the Washington Post’s story on this morning’s historic event here.