Last night, HRC volunteers made phone calls to veteran households and transferred 131 supporters to Senator Scott Brown’s voicemail box.
We were joined by three veterans who shared their stories with the volunteers. Mike Young, who served as a Marine, told about serving overseas in an anti-terrorism security team alongside a bisexual Marine. “There was no negative effect on morale, effectiveness, or readiness in my unit. The men and women in the Marine Corps are the best of the best… All troops, gay and straight, will work and live together exactly as their superiors tell them, because that’s what Marines do. The military leaders have recommended repeal. It is absurd to think that a service as efficient and professional as the Marines would face any considerable negative impact when ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is repealed. We’re the Marines. We will improvise, adapt, and overcome.”
This morning we were excited to see that Scott Brown’s hometown paper printed an editorial today calling on the senator to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. The Sun Chronicle indicated Brown is:
“on the fence regarding repeal… Practical considerations should lead him to back the repeal. The proposal comes from the Pentagon, to which Brown has been loyal throughout his career in politics and in the National Guard. And the Pentagon has made it plain that it expects a losing battle in the courts if the policy is not repealed. Brown’s position, according to a statement from his office, is that ‘we should not implement any new policy until we have assurances it can be implemented without jeopardizing the mission of our military.
…Not repealing [the law] would pose the larger jeopardy by opening implementation of new policies to court oversight. But mostly we expect Sen. Brown to decide on backing the repeal, after this week’s hearings by the Armed Forces Committee, on which he serves, because it is the right thing to do.”
With similar mainstream newspapers writing editorials, such as the Boston Herald and the MetroWest Daily News, the pressure on Senator Brown is building. Calls, emails and handwritten letters are tallied by Senate offices so don’t forget to add your voice to the call for repeal.
