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Tucson Calls For Repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

Jim Burroway

September 6th, 2007

I have no idea how I missed this. It took the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network to get me to notice that Tucson, Arizona — my fair city — passed a resolution calling on Congress to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Mayor Bob Walkup (R) and the Tucson City Council approved the resolution which reads in part:

“Military readiness is enhanced when every qualified, capable American, regardless of sexual orientation, is welcomed into our Armed Forces and has his or her talents utilized in the best interest of our national security.”

Tucson is a significant military town, home of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and Raytheon, a major defense contractor. (Raytheon, by the way, became the first aerospace company to win a perfect score on the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index in 2005.) In addition, Tucson’s sunny weather has attracted a huge number of military retirees — they often try to arrange for their last posting at D-M before retirement.

Nevertheless, Tucson is an incredibly open city for LGBT’s. In 1975, Tucson was one of the nation’s first communities pass anti-discrimination laws based on sexual orientation, and more recently Tucson (Pima Co.) led the state in defeating the anti-marriage amendment.

Tucson’s resolution follows similar measure from Atlanta, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Saint Louis.

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