Two senior Defense Department officials spoke at the Department’s first-ever Pride month event. One noted the positive impact of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal on the children of gay servicemembers—but the other observed that there are still obstacles to full equality for them.
Defense Department General Counsel Jeh Johnson, noted that since the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, LGB servicemembers “no longer have to teach a child to lie to protect a father’s career.” (Via OutServe.)
Gordon Tanner, principal deputy general counsel for the Air Force, also spoke at a panel during the event. Tanner, who is gay, said that he hopes the barriers to recognizing the partners of servicemembers will drop as well: “We can be one Air Force, where a deployed airman can perform her mission and not have to worry about her partner and children living in shabby, off-base housing because they were ineligible for on-base military housing.” (Via NPR. For more on how the Defense of Marriage Act still limits equality for servicemembers with same-sex partners and children, see my earlier piece at Keen News Service.)