Conway reaffirms opposition to DADT repeal - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Conway reaffirms opposition to DADT repeal

Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway told Senate lawmakers Thursday he opposes permitting gays and lesbians to serve openly in the Marine Corps, asking rhetorically whether repealing the law known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” would help the fighting readiness of the Marine Corps.

Conway, who appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, stressed that his view was his own. All three leaders told senators that whatever happens, they will abide by the orders of the president and the laws passed by Congress.

“My personal opinion is that unless we can strip away the emotion, the agendas and the politics and ask, at least in my case, do we somehow enhance the war-fighting capabilities of the United States Marine Corps by allowing homosexuals to openly serve?” Conway said. “We haven't addressed it from the correct perspective. At this point, I think that the current policy works. My best military advice to this committee, to the secretary, and to the president would be to keep the law such as it is.”

Conway’s was one of three divergent responses to Senate lawmakers from the Navy Department’s top leadership. Mabus told senators he thinks gays and lesbians should be permitted to serve openly in the military, even as Roughead kept his views to himself.

Mabus cautioned senators that his view on open service was his personal opinion. He also said that if a Defense Department investigation finds that allowing open service would hurt the readiness of the Navy Department, he would oppose it.

Still, Mabus said he thought open service was the right course for the military to take.

“I think it’s important to remember that we have gays in the military right now. It’s only a question of whether they can serve openly or not, and I think the chairman of the joint chiefs set out that case pretty well,” he said. “Next, I think that it’s important to distinguish between orientation and conduct. We have lots of rules in the military, in the Navy and Marine Corps, about conduct and heterosexual conduct, that we enforce very stringently and very specifically. And I think that we’ve got to be careful to separate orientation, which is what we’re talking about, and conduct.”

Related story: Roughead: Study needed before DADT repeal

Mabus said another consideration is that he is very seldom questioned about gays in the military when he meets with sailors and Marines in all-hands calls on ships or bases. That tacit sanguinity, and his faith in the force, gives him confidence that a repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” would cause few problems.

“I’ve just got absolute faith in the Navy and the Marine Corps to carry out any mission that they’re given, including this one, without any sort of diminution in fighting value. The type of people we have in those two forces are just so incredible,” he said.

Roughead made no statement about his thoughts on a repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” but he emphasized the importance of the planned DoD survey that will ask troops and their families what they think about serving with openly gay men and women.

“We’ve never done this — we’ve never assessed the force this way,” he said. “It’s not our policy to poll the force and determine how they feel about the laws of the land.”

Regardless what other nation’s navies have experienced if they’ve allowed open service, only a survey of American sailors and their families will give decision-makers the right understanding of how to proceed, Roughead said.