Servicemembers United Action Fund has launched a new website, MilitaryReadiness.org, and a new ad campaign to push for repeal of DADT. Here’s the first ad with Staff Sergeant Brian Muller, a former Army Bomb Disposal Technician, who was discharged under DADT. Via press release:
“This new ad, and the subsequent ads that will be released each week, helps put a human face on the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ issue for a national mainstream audience and effectively demonstrates how this outdated law actually harms military readiness,” said Alexander Nicholson, Executive Director of Servicemembers United and the Servicemembers United Action Fund.
At Pam’s House Blend, SU’s Jarrod Chlapowski explains the campaign, which he promises will “hard-hitting” and “show why repealing DADT will improve military readiness”:
For this ad we focused on addressing the effects of open service and the impact of losing critical talent.
Today’s opposition tends to either believe that open service would be detrimental to the oft-repeated concepts of unit cohesion, troop morale, and combat readiness; that it would be in the best interest of the military to hold off on repeal until after we’ve completed our current overseas obligations; or that the US should not move on repeal in Congress until after the Pentagon working group completes its review in December of this year.
The logic behind all three arguments is that open service would to some degree be detrimental to military readiness, that conflict and disarray would inevitably result. This video shows – and SU’s subsequent videos will show – that the exact opposite is actually true.
We as a community sometimes have a tendency to focus on how horrible DADT is and how detrimental it is to the military’s mission. While true, these points do not address or challenge the perspective that the existence of openly serving gays and lesbians will be damaging to the military too. The experiences of those who were able to successfully serve openly under DADT for a period of time – those like Brian – do address this fundamental opposition claim.
Again, this is the first in a series of ads. Please, pass this video around, spread the word. And check out the web ad campaign’s homepage while you’re at it.
We’re not done fighting DADT, and neither are you. See you next week.
