The changes by the administration came in tandem with the recommendation made by the Student Government Ad-Hoc Committee for the Review of University Military Policy. Led by its Chairman Brett Atanasio, the committee advocated expanding and improving access for the ROTC program. Some 20 years after students began protesting against discrimination and over 17 years since DADT’s original enactment, a recent headline in The Eagle proclaimed: “After ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal, opposition to SG ROTC bill erodes,” noting that with the repeal of DADT, the opposition based on discrimination had evaporated. “With the repeal of DADT I think you will see AU develop a much warmer and closer relationship to the military over the next few years,” Atanasio said. “I think you’ll see much less resistance from students who were concerned about discrimination.” *** DADT’s departure is undoubtedly a milestone. “It is a major step forward in the fight for full civil equality for LGBT people,” said Tonei Glavinic, executive director of AU’s Queers and Allies. There are some remaining hurdles, though. “Military culture is pretty homophobic and that isn’t going to change overnight,” Glavinic said. Transgender people are also still prohibited from serving and the military doesn’t recognize all the rights of married same-sex couples. The AU military community also seems to welcome the repeal. “Considering DADT in light of my military career I think it is a smart policy change,” said Matthew Halbe, president of Veterans of American University. He believes the bill “will protect openly gay soldiers from personal vendettas of their commanders.”
identity,” he claimed. “Few can compare to the dedication and the sacrifice of those who chose to fulfill this ideal by joining the armed forces.” One AU alum currently serving in the military considers the efforts of anti-war activists misdirected. “Many, if not all of those politicians were helped into office by those very AU students who vilify the military,” he said. “If AU students really cared about the wars we were fighting, then how about working to get someone elected who will send the troops home?” *** Regardless of how students feel, the military’s access to AU and its presence on campus are likely to expand with the repeal of DADT. But that doesn’t necessarily have to deter peace activists. “Just because DADT has been repealed doesn’t mean that we can’t resist an increased military presence,” said Caitlin Rosser, co-director of the Student Peace Alliance. “It just means we must change our dialogue and our tactics.” Any discussion of the US military is likely to be thorny. But if ROTC comes to campus, Rosser hopes it will engender “desperately needed dialogue” over the role of the US military in American culture. Halbe agrees. “We project an image of a non-militarized society, when actually we are armed to the teeth,” he said. “If we push ROTC off campus, we are putting up blinders.” s
Richard Phillips is a graduate student studying public policy.
Although the resistance from LGBT rights advocates may no longer be central, for many AU activists, discrimination was beside the point. “The military is an extremely immoral institution; DADT was just a drop in the bucket,” said Michael Dranove, a member of the AU Community Action and Social Justice Collective. “We all know that the real crimes that the US military commits are done in foreign countries.” Dranove says that if international law were properly enforced, many US leaders over the past 50 years would have faced war crimes charges. In response to an e-mail query, foundational antiwar advocate Noam Chomsky echoed Dranove’s opposition. He called the focus on DADT an “evasion” of the real issue, which is ensuring that universities are “free and independent” and not “subservient to state or private power.” Atanasio, on the other hand, objects to those who criticize the military. “The call to service is a defining characteristic of the AU
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