Senate confirms openly gay Army chief, five years after 'don't ask, don't tell'

Eric Fanning's confirmation sailed through the Senate after Sen. Pat Roberts (R) of Kansas withdrew objections that had stalled the process for months.

|
Susan Walsh/AP/File
Army Secretary Eric Fanning testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington in January.

Eric Fanning was unanimously confirmed as secretary of the Army by the Senate on Tuesday, making him the first openly gay leader in the United States military.

Secretary Fanning's confirmation marks a noted departure from the military's previously enforced "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, repealed in 2011, which barred openly gay people from enlisting in the military and protected closeted service members from discrimination, while prohibiting them to reveal their orientation.

Fanning, the former chief of staff to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and undersecretary of the Air Force, was approved after eight months of holdup, led by Sen. Pat Roberts (R) of Kansas. Senator Roberts, while not opposed to Fanning's promotion, used the nomination as leverage to underscore his opposition to the potential transfer of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detainees to his home state of Kansas.

Roberts said that Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work had told him it was too late for the Obama administration to begin a prisoner transfer effort, prompting him to rescind his objection to Fanning's nomination. Deputy Secretary Work had encouraged the senator to withdraw his objection.

"I welcome the US Senate's vote to confirm Eric Fanning as Army Secretary, following Senator Pat Robert's decision to lift his hold on the nomination," Work said in a statement. "As I told Senator Roberts, his hold was depriving the Army of leadership at a time of war and was the wrong way to express his opposition to the administration's plan for responsibly closing the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay."

In a Tuesday statement, Secretary Carter expressed his support for Fanning and his new position.

"Eric is one of our country's most knowledgeable, dedicated, and experienced defense officials and I am confident he will make an exceptional Secretary," Carter said. "Eric's experienced leadership will be an invaluable asset to the Army at this important moment."

Material from Reuters and The Associated Press was used in this report.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Senate confirms openly gay Army chief, five years after 'don't ask, don't tell'
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2016/0518/Senate-confirms-openly-gay-Army-chief-five-years-after-don-t-ask-don-t-tell
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe