Colin Powell and APA Announce Support for DADT Repeal

Today saw more positive news on the potential repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell ("DADT"), no doubt to the horror of DADT proponents. First, Colin Powell, who as Joint Chiefs chairman 17 years ago who persuaded the Clinton White House to adopt the DADT has done an about face and announced that he supports the statements of current Joint Chiefs chairman, Mike Mullen, and Defense Secretary Gates that DADT should be repealed. Powell made the statement in an interview with Adrea Mitchell. Here are some highlights vis MSNBC:
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Colin Powell has just issued a statement supporting Joint Chiefs Chairman Mullen's and Defense Secretary Gates' effort to review -- and likely repeal -- the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy toward gays in the military.
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Powell's statement:
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In the almost seventeen years since the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" legislation was passed, attitudes and circumstances have changed. The principal issue has always been the effectiveness of the Armed Forces and order and discipline in the ranks. I strongly believe that this is a judgment to be made by the current military leadership and the Commander in Chief. It is also a judgment Congress must make. For the past two years, I have expressed the view that it was time for the law to be reviewed by Congress. I fully support the new approach presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee this week by Secretary of Defense Gates and Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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On the scientific/medical front, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) is calling for the U.S. military to abandon the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. With top military leadership and the medical/mental health community calling for repeal, it will become increasingly obvious that the sole underlying justification for DADT is religious based discrimination. If gays can openly serve in the U.S. Military, it will be a serious blow to the Christianist effort to keep LGBT citizens inferior and then cite that very inferiority to justify anti-gay discrimination. Here are some highlights from Medscape.com:

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“The US should repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and allow capable men and women to serve without regard to sexual orientation,” noted APA President Alan F. Schatzberg, MD. The APA Board of Trustees has voted to urge abandonment of the policy.
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“As I understand the political situation, this is the first time that a sitting member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is actually coming out in favor of reversal,” said Jack Drescher, MD, distinguished fellow of the APA and a past chair (2000-2006) of the APA’s Committee on Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Issues.
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“This is a good thing,” Dr. Drescher said. “This is consistent with policies that we believe in that we do not serve the mental health of our fighting forces by forcing those to hide the truth of who they are.” He noted that the APA has opposed discrimination in the US Armed Services since 1990, when the first position statement came out.