Press Releases

Today, U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (WA-02), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, cosponsored legislation to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. The U.S. Senate has so far failed to advance a repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell as part of the defense bill so Larsen is joining colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to introduce legislation that will repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell as a standalone measure. Larsen said:

“It is past time for us to move forward and repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. All qualified men and women who are willing to serve their country should be able to volunteer for the military.

“I am cosponsoring legislation to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell because I am disappointed in the Senate’s failure to move forward with ending this harmful policy. At a time when we have troops on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq, we cannot afford inaction on this harmful policy.

“Keeping Don’t Ask Don’t Tell intact will only harm our military readiness by depriving our troops of service members who are providing basic and advanced skills toward our nation's security. 

According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, more than 13,500 service members have been kicked out of the military since Don't Ask, Don't Tell took effect in 1993.  In the last five years, the military has discharged nearly 800 mission-critical troops, including dozens of Arabic and Farsi linguists who were essential to military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Both the Pentagon and service members agree: the risk of repeal to overall military effectiveness is low. The Pentagon recently released a comprehensive and objective study that surveyed 400,000 service members.  Over 90 percent of these men and women in the field said that working with a service member who they believed to be gay did not hurt the performance of their brigade or platoon.

“The Pentagon’s report articulated that the military is ready and able to implement repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in a thoughtful and prepared way that will not threaten our military readiness.

“I call on my colleagues in Congress to move forward with repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell so we can allow all qualified men and women who are willing to put their lives on the line to serve their country.”

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Click here to read PubliCola's coverage of my stance on repealing DADT.