Senate To Hold DADT Hearing

Jason Bellini reports at the Daily Beast that while Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand says she doesn't have the support necessary to force the suspension of the enforcement of DADT, she has obtained a commitment that the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold hearings on the issue this fall.

A statement from the Gillibrand’s office, shared exclusively with The Daily Beast, notes that “265 men and women have been unfairly dismissed from the Armed Forces since President Barack Obama took office.” Gillibrand’s fast-track proposal for halting DADT, an amendment to the Military Reauthorization Act that would have ordered the Defense secretary to stop investigating gay service members, was never introduced. Even with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressing his support, Gillibrand couldn’t gather the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster, according to a spokesperson. “I thought it was a long shot from the very beginning,” says Aubrey Sarvis, executive director the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an organization fighting for the end of DADT. “Clearly one of the positive things that came out of the Gillibrand amendment was that it served as a catalyst for hearings,” he added.

Bellini notes that Rep. Patrick Murphy's bill to repeal DADT has close to the 218 votes needed to pass.

RELATED: Gillibrand, who was appointed to replace Hillary Clinton as New York's junior Senator, faces a strong 2010 election opponent in eight-term U.S. House Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NYC/UES).

Gillibrand Considers Bill To Suspend DADT

Over at the Daily Beast, Jason Bellini reports that Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) is considering introducing a bill this week that will suspend enforcement of DADT for 18 months.

It would be the first time since the implementation of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in 1993 that senators are forced to declare their position on the gay ban. A Senate staffer familiar with the matter says Gillibrand may introduce her amendment on Tuesday to the Defense reauthorization bill. If the amendment were to pass, gay-rights leaders expect it would stand a strong chance of being approved by the House and could be signed into law by President Obama, who has expressed his desire for the ban to be lifted. Rep. Patrick Murphy is trying to build support for a bill that has already been introduced in the House that would repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

But Gillibrand's move would circumvent a long legislative process at a time when an average of two gay soldiers per day are being discharged. A press representative from Gillibrand's office said the decision to introduce the amendment is not final. "Senator Gillibrand is working with Senator Kennedy's office to garner support for a repeal of ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell,’ and this is part of an ongoing effort to repeal this policy," said Bethany Lesser, a spokeswoman for the senator.

According to Bellini, both the HRC and the SLDN had been "shopping the idea" for a suspension amendment to various Senators before deciding on Gillibrand.

RELATED: Sen. Gillibrand was appointed to her position replacing Hillary Clinton by NY Gov. David Paterson and faces what may be a tough primary election in 2010. Very gay-friendly U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) has already announced her plan to run against Gillibrand. Scoring a major coup with the suspension of DADT could cement Gillibrand's position with New York's important LGBT vote.

Stars And Stripes Supports Story That HRC Soft-Pedaled Repeal Of DADT

Three weeks ago reporter Jason Bellini created a firestorm in the gay blogosphere with his Daily Beast story charging that the HRC had asked Congress to put aside working on the repeal of DADT in favor of other items like the passage of hate crimes and ENDA. The HRC issued a vehement denial of the story and after a few days the furor seemed to die down. But Timothy Kincaid at Box Turtle Bulletin points us to this story in yesterday's Stars And Stripes which backs Bellini's account.

An official with the House Democratic leadership said the House is committed to repealing “don’t ask” but has agreed with civil rights groups to put new hate crime legislation and a workplace nondiscrimination bill on the legislative calendar before taking up the military issue. White House officials declined comment on their plans, and on whether the president will send his own “don’t ask” legislation to Capitol Hill. Gibbs this week said simply that “we’re pleased that this is a priority not just of the president’s but of those in Congress, and we’re hopeful that something can get done.” But he also noted that the repeal is just one of numerous goals for the White House this year. The hot-potato game between the White House and Capitol Hill is fueling frustration among gay-rights advocates, who strongly supported both Obama and the Democratic slate of congressional candidates during last year’s election. Both the president and lawmakers promised during the campaign to overturn the “don’t ask” law.

The Stars And Stripes article goes on to quote Nathaniel Frank of the Palm Center, the group who had told Michelangelo Signorile the same story on his SiriusXM show.

Daily Beast Reports: HRC Told Congress To Wait On DADT, Push For ENDA, Hate Crimes Instead

In a video posted at The Daily Beast, reporter Jason Bellini claims that Sen. Chuck Schumer "let it slip" that the Human Rights Campaign told "Senators and members of the U.S. House" to put aside the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and instead focus on ENDA and the hate crimes act.

UPDATE: Michael Cole, Senior Communications Manager of the HRC, wrote me with this statement: "This story is not only an outright lie, it is recklessly irresponsible. HRC never made such a deal and continues to work with congress and the administration on a full range of equality issues including a swift end to the military's shameful ban on gay servicemembers."

UPDATE II: Jason Bellini wrote to direct us to this post from Michelangelo Signorile.

While Bellini had unnamed sources, I, however, have a named source saying exactly what Bellini reports, someone I interviewed several weeks ago on the show: Aaron Belkin of the Palm Center, the research institute that focuses on the military and sexuality, located at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Belkin writes often for The Huffington Post and interacts with members of Congress. (I have including a few-minute clip from that interview here as well). I didn't see or know about the Bellini piece when I interviewed Joe (it either had just posted or wasn't up yet), but I did ask him about what Belkin claimed. Belkin was relatively certain in what he told me:

AB: "...Our major national gay rights organizations -- it would be one thing to say nothing, but there is pro-active lobbying on the hill for Congress not to consider [the "don't ask, don't tell"] issue. And so the community has been appalling on this issue.
MS: Have you seen any response from any of those groups, and I guess we're talking about the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, other Washington groups?
AB:...We've heard from so many offices that not only are they not doing anything but they're pro-actively lobbying against consideration of the issue. I feel very confident in saying that.

Read Signorile's entire piece on this flap, it's very enlightening.