President Obama - DADT Repeal Act Case Study. Law Essay

President Obama – Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) Repeal Act
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President Obama – Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) Repeal Act
Introduction
Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) was a policy adopted in 1994 by the US military servicemen and women to protect the lesbians, gays, and bisexuals from discrimination either during applying to be an army person or for those already in the military camps. The policy also demanded that the gay, bisexual, and lesbians not to disclose their sexuality. Clinton's administration adopted the fact following a long history of the US military persons engaging in homosexuality dating back to the revolutionary war. The army adopted army mobilization regulations in 1942, which distinguished homosexuals from ordinary recruits for the first time. Since then, the US military has taken different policies in their efforts to discourage gay and lesbianism in the forces because they believed it is against society's morals. Different administrations also had different versions of their policies that addressed homosexual problems in the United States. The leader I have chosen for my case study is President Barack Obama on the decision he made on the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) Appeal Act.
The Situation
The DADT Act was enacted in 1994 by Clinton’s administration to allow gays, bisexuals, and lesbians to have freedom of their sexual desires but with a condition; to do it secretly. In 2008, the military fired over 12,000 forces who had openly been involved in sexual orientation against the DADT Act. This caused concern to President Obama's administration, which had to discuss it as losing a lot of Soldiers.
In December 2010, the Senate overturned the act by 65 to 31 votes. President Obama pushed for this change as he was to end Clinton's era laws by reinstating his own. Even though Obama won for the shift, lawyers argued that giving an order to the Pentagon immediately after the win would harm the troops' relationships, moral and eventually reduce the focus of the Army. Many lawyers highly questioned the order by the supreme court to implement the law as they argued that proper implementation of a statute is gradual but cannot occur overnight. Two main facts were highly questionable on how the act was passed and implemented. As earlier mentioned, the act was ordered to be implemented too quickly. Catherine Connell adds that the appeal did not take into consideration family issues, education, and housing (2017). Obama's administration was not able to ask itself of the outcomes of same-sex members who can get married in the same department as it will be still allowing marriage in the Army. This caused a lot of questions like the other transgender person married Army men and women requested to bring their families to the barracks.
Secondly, it appeared that President Obama owned a policy that he opposed. Obama was a conservative of moral and legal processes, which he highly articulated the need to observe human rights. Allowing same-sex relationships had followed the legal process but was considered immoral in the military and to society. Some looked at maintaining the status quo as the best option.