Lambda Legal to Provide Testimony at New York City Council Hearing on Military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy

(New York, January 24, 2008) — Lambda Legal's Deputy Legal Director, Hayley Gorenberg, will provide testimony at tomorrow's New York City Council hearing regarding the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

Gorenberg will present analysis of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" in light of Lambda Legal's landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas in which struck down all remaining state sodomy laws. The 5th anniversary of Lawrence v. Texas is in June of this year. Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military sodomy law is the basis for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and is unjustifiably still on the military law books.

Testimony excerpt: "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" disintegrates under the constitutional analysis that carried the day five years ago, in Lambda Legal's groundbreaking ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down all remaining state sodomy laws in the country and vindicated the constitutional right to express sexual intimacy in adult relationships.

Since the decision Lambda Legal secured in Lawrence, the Supreme Court has not addressed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Because the policy bans military personnel from same-sex sexual contact, even in private, it essentially bars gays from serving. Lawrence held that the sexual intimacies and relationships of lesbian and gay consenting adults are protected under the shelter of an existing liberty interest, long recognized as fundamental to everyone — no matter their sexual orientation. Rather than finding a right to same-sex intimacy, Lawrence confirmed that lesbians and gay men share the same fundamental right that everyone else has to maintain private, intimate relationships and make personal choices about whom one will choose and what one will do within those consensual adult relationships.

New York City Council's Committee on Veterans and the Committee on Civil Rights hearing regarding Proposed Res. No. 1170-A urging President Bush, Congress and the Defense Department to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell: Friday January 25th at 1:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers, City Hall, New York, NY.

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Contact: Tika Milan 212.809.8585 ext. 223; E: tmilan@lambdalegal.org