This post was submitted by Jay Carmona

This Saturday the Senate voted to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Congratulations to everyone who lobbied, told their stories, wrote articles and chained themselves to things (you know who you are)! Does that mean all the gays and lesbians in the armed forces can come out waving their rainbow flags?

Sorry gays, no dice.

Although Saturday’s Senate vote was historic (as would have been the passage of the DREAM Act, which failed to make cloture Saturday by 5 votes), a repeal of the ban must now be signed by the President, who is expected to do so later this week.

Is that all? After The President signs the bill, then can we wave our flags?

Unfortunately, no. After The President signs the bill, he, as well as the Secretary of Defense and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff must sign an additional letter certifying that the repeal will not hurt the military (after the Pentagon study already concluded it would not, I might add).

How about now? Flags? Yes?

Again, no. Sorry. Gay and lesbian service members (the word is still out on bisexuals, but I’ll talk about transgender service members in a minute) must then wait an additional 60 days for the repeal to be implemented. There is no word and no speculation yet on how long it will take for the additional letter to be signed, and any time before that day or in the additional two months before implementation you can be discharged under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell—unless The President signs an executive order stopping the discharges in the interim. So put those flags away.

Many of us, though, have some additional concerns about what this repeal might bring, and some things we’d like to see people thinking about and talking about:

1.     Where’s the nondiscrimination policy? The repeal bill The President will be signing does not address, place any penalty on, or define discrimination against service members for being gay or lesbian. This means that any drill sergeant or commanding officer could still discriminate against a gay or lesbian soldier with no threat of recourse. Additionally, the question of penalties for hate/bias motivated violence against lesbian and gay service members has not been sufficiently addressed. Backlash (or “blowback” in military parlance) is likely to hit gay and lesbian soldiers, and they have no protections as of now. Further, what about ensuring gay and lesbian soldiers are being promoted according to merit, and not being sent into danger in higher numbers, as happened to African American soldiers after desegregation? Without these protections, are gays and lesbians really allowed to be out in the military?

2. What about bisexuality, or any other non-gay and non-heterosexual sexuality? I have no idea, frankly. The text of S. 4023: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010 actually doesn’t ever say the word “gay” or “lesbian” but uses “homosexual,” a word that most of us (including GLAAD) have deemed inappropriate and outdated. According to the bill, “homosexuals” are now allowed to serve in the military. I am purposely using the words “gay” and “lesbian” in this post not to intentionally leave out bisexual people (and other identities) but because it is unclear that they would be protected under this bill and it would be irresponsible to imply that they were.

3. Nothing has changed for transgender people. That’s right. Nothing. There is still a blanket ban on transgender people serving in the military. The military, in fact, still classifies transpeople as mentally ill (being as “Gender Identity Disorder” (GID) is still classified by the American Psychiatric Association as a mental illness) and anyone with medical history including gender affirmation surgery is prohibited from to entering service. The APA lists these as two of the diagnostic criteria for GID: “in boys, preference for cross-dressing or simulating female attire; in girls, insistence on wearing only stereotypical masculine clothing” and “intense desire to participate in the stereotypical games and pastimes of the other sex.” According to the above, EVERY WOMAN serving in the military in uniform automatically qualifies as having GID (as does practically every woman I know).

4. What about same-sex marriages? Remember DOMA? The military will likely consider all gay and lesbian service members single until we are Federally recognized. In fact, that’s what the Pentagon study recommends. So forget about them calling your spouse if you are killed or injured while being gay or lesbian.

Finally, folks: War still sucks. Close to four years ago I lost a very good friend. He died because of a simple upper respiratory infection in his lungs during his training to become a marine. The military could vaccinate against such infections, but their studies have deemed that this vaccine would not be “cost effective” to administer. Personally, I don’t think any institution that engages in wars as costly as Iraq but will not spend a pittance to save the lives of those like my friend deserves the service of gays and lesbians—or anybody else for that matter. Before you enlist, take a good, long look at your other options.

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