An Expert Discusses Bringing Gay Troops to Repeal Debate

Photo by Matthew Brown, used with permission from Nathaniel Frank

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Last week’s call for temporary immunity to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” for gay soldiers testifying at Congressional hearings for repeal, introduced in a bill by Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, could put more pressure on the Obama administration to end the counterproductive and incredibly expensive Clinton-era compromise. Today I spoke with Nathaniel Frank, author of Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America and senior research fellow at the Palm Center at the University of California in Santa Barbara, about the latest developments. Read the interview here.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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