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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Editorial: Ban’s repeal is victory for honesty and for America

U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who led the fight on the Senate floor to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell,” sounded a high-minded theme:

“Allowing people to serve our military regardless of sexual orientation is not a liberal or conservative idea, not a Republican or Democratic idea. It is an American idea consistent with American values.”

True, but that’s not what Saturday’s Senate vote will help establish. It’s not that gays and lesbians haven’t been allowed to serve in the armed forces; it’s that they haven’t been allowed to be honest about it.

Since 1993, when don’t ask, don’t tell became law, more than 14,000 members of the armed forces have been discharged – not for misconduct, not for incompetence and not even because they were gay, but because they acknowledged they were gay.

The Pentagon’s comprehensive survey of 115,000 service members revealed that 69 percent knew or believed they had served with gays and lesbians. And of those, a solid 92 percent felt the effect on their ability to work together was either very good, good or neither poor nor good. The survey consistently found that respondents’ fears of trouble diminished when they were drawing on actual experience rather than speculation.

Sexual orientation has not been banned from the military under don’t ask, don’t tell. Truth has.

In their report on the survey, Pentagon chief counsel Jeh C. Johnson and Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, said lifting the 17-year-old ban probably won’t change much. Gays and lesbians are likely to be as discreet in discussing sexual orientation in the workplace as their civilian counterparts, they said.

But when the subject is broached, candid comments won’t become grounds for denying loyal Americans the opportunity to fight for their country.

As a proud institution, the military should be celebrating. Ultimately the weekend’s legislative victory will relieve the armed forces of the embarrassment of having to treat honesty as an infraction.

As George Bernard Shaw once said, “we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.”

Congress has now acted to make the world more honest. And more just.