Lady Gaga attends Portland rally opposing DADT policy

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Amy Brooks

Lady Gaga voices her opinion on the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy at the grassroots protest held by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network on Monday afternoon in Portland.

Amy Brooks | The Maine Campus

Lady Gaga speaks on stage accompanied by several members of the military who were discharged because of Don't Ask Don't Tell.

In the University of Maine community, and across the nation, U.S. service members had their minds on the Sept. 21 senatorial vote on the Defense Department bill, which included an amendment to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

So did Lady Gaga.

In a last ditch lobbying effort, the pop star and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network representatives came to Portland the day before the vote.

“I am one of the casualties,” former Air Force Major Mike Almy said of his discharge from service due to the policy.

“I kept my personal life far away from my professional life,” Almy added, speaking to a crowd of more than 2,000 people in Deering Oaks Park. He was discharged after a colleague discovered personal e-mail messages to a fellow male Air Force member he had dated.

The defense bill had included controversial amendments such as repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, allowing abortion in military hospitals and granting conditional citizenship to undocumented youth. The bill was rejected with a vote of 56–43. Sixty votes were needed to overcome the Republican opposition.

Both Maine senators, Republicans Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, stayed within party lines while voting, despite Collins’ earlier public support for the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Arkansas Democratic senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor skipped the fence and voted with Republicans to block discussion of the bill.

The Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps enrollment officer at UMaine, Maj. James Karcanes, did not know about Monday’s rally in Portland, but knew that in his year-and-a-half in his position at UMaine, he has never seen a problem caused by the policy. He could not disclose his personal opinions regarding the senatorial vote or the policy itself.

“All I can do is tell you Army policy,” said Karcanes.

He explained the direct chain of command from Congress, to president, to secretary of defense, and said all service members are executors of military law.

Gaga, in a satirical twist of military law, manipulated the rhetoric of the U.S. Armed Forces oath of office to allow for breaches, if an openly gay member of the armed forces is serving.

Or as Gaga put it, “Unless, there’s a gay soldier in my unit, sir.”

Her fiery speech incited crowd participation and minimal protest, with one man calling himself “Brother Terry” preaching sermons off to the side.

Brother Terry explained to those questioning his sermons that the Bible denounces homosexuality and is the word of God and that America is a Christian nation.

If the policy is not repealed, the unofficial Gaga-proposed solution would be to send homophobic people home rather than discharging openly gay service members.

“If you don’t like it, go home,” she yelled out to the cheering crowd.

In a Sept. 21 Christian Science Monitor article, reporter Gail Russell Chaddock quoted Collins’ floor speech: “It’s the right thing to do. I think it’s only fair,” Collins said, referring to repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, “but I cannot vote to proceed to this bill under a situation that’s going to shut down the debate and preclude Republican amendments. That, too, is not fair.”

Collins and other GOP members blocked the bill in opposition to the proposed amendments and limited discussion, according to reports from The Los Angeles Times.

In a procedural quirk, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. sided with Republicans in his vote, but only so he would be able to bring the measure up at some other time, according to a Sept. 21 article appearing on cnn.com.

In the UMaine Rainbow Resource Room in the basement of the Memorial Union, loungers Evan McDuff and Charles Chapin expressed their disappointment over the vote.

“I feel it’s a huge letdown but I’m not surprised at all,” Chapin, a fifth-year student double majoring in psychology and early childhood development, said.

“I’m kind of disappointed,” McDuff, a second-year botany student, said. McDuff attended the rally with friends on Monday and thought “all the speeches were really great.”

Whether on campus, or off, the policy will continue to be challenged, but has been effectively barred for now.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010, 11:31 pm. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.