News Release
For Immediate Release: July 6, 2011
Contact: Diane Gramley 1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355
Impatient Activists Judges Say Allow Homosexuals in Military
(Harrisburg) — Using political maneuvering and the deliberate misrepresentation of military responses, Congress overturned the more than 235 year ban on homosexuals in the military on December 18 of last year. Now rather than wait for the process that was laid out in the new law, a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered an immediate stop to enforcement of the ban on homosexuals in the military. The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide advocate for a strong military, is appalled that members of the United States military continue being used as guinea pigs in this great social experiment. Their opinions have been ignored and they are currently going through sensitivity training to be more ‘gay-friendly.’
“The Ninth Circuit Court is the most overturned federal court in the country. They’ve been wrong many times in the past and are once again. Even as the repeal of the law banning homosexuals was a direct assault on our military, this is a further attack,” noted Diane Gramley, President of the AFA of PA.
Could this decision by the Ninth Circuit be linked to the recent revelation that the Department of Defense Inspector General investigation ordered by then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates uncovered some very troubling and biased circumstances leading up to the repeal of the ban? Page 20 of the recently leaked document notes, ” Early evidence suggested that the primary source of the information was someone who had a strong emotional attachment to the issue of furthering a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” and probably had “assumptions going in” that the CRWG’s findings would ultimately reveal that repeal would not be supported by a majority of Service members. In addition, e-mails from the Washington Post reporters suggested that the source was not a “disinterested party” and other evidence showed the source carefully disclosed specific “”Survey data to support a pro-repeal agenda.””
“Sixty percent of our combat troops oppose repeal of the ban. Yet Congress, without reading the actual Pentagon Report, lifted it. Now activists judges jump into the fray and tell our military to lift the ban immediately. Our nation’s security is at risk and judges and politicians apparently would rather be politically correct than do what’s best for our military and our nation,” Gramley continued.
The ban was overturned without the many hearings that were necessary to fully investigate the ramifications of repeal. Instead the two hearings held in December did not refute the ‘findings of fact’ resulting from the numerous hearings held prior to passage of the 1993 law banning homosexuals from serving in the military and which are included in the actual law. Those fifteen findings include: (2) There is no constitutional right to serve in the armed forces; (6) success in combat requires military units that are characterized by high morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion; (7) one of the most critical elements in combat capability is unit cohesion, that is, the bonds of trust among individual service members that make the combat effectiveness of a military unit greater than the sum of the combat effectiveness of the individual unit members; (8) military life is fundamentally different from civilian life in that- (A) the extraordinary responsibilities of the armed forces, the unique conditions of military service, and the critical role of unit cohesion, require that the military community, while subject to civilian control, exist as a specialized society; and (B) the military society is characterized by its own laws, rules, customs, and traditions, including numerous restrictions on personal behavior, that would not be acceptable in civilian society; (12) the worldwide deployment of United States military forces, the international responsibilities of the United States, and the potential for involvement of the armed forces in actual combat routinely make it necessary for members of the armed forces involuntarily to accept living conditions and working conditions that are often spartan, primitive, and characterized by forced intimacy with little or no privacy; (13) The prohibition against homosexual conduct is a long-standing element of military law that continues to be necessary in the unique circumstances of military service; (15) the presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.”
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