RENWL

Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell

In a statement released by the Department Of Defense on Friday, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell barely hid the military’s angst with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) and other gay orgs questioning the soundness of the DADT repeal survey after it was issued to military personnel last Thursday.

Morrell said many stories that have resulted from advocacy groups leaking a 103-question survey e-mailed this week to 400,000 servicemembers “have been inflammatory in the worst case, and misleading in the best case.”

Advocacy groups on both sides of the question released the survey, and Morrell said the outside influence is not helpful to the process.

SLDN on Thursday advised gay and lesbian soldiers not to participate in answering survey questions amid privacy concerns for gay and lesbian soldiers who could be potentially outed, according to SLDN, due to their participation in the survey process. The org also expressed concern that it was not advised for input on the survey prior to its release to military.

However, in regards to the Pentagon’s decision to not share the survey outside the military prior to its release to military personnel Morrell said, “we thought it would be breaking faith with them for us to be proactively sharing the survey. Because what we are trying to do is preserve the credibility and integrity of the answers that it elicits from the force,” he explained in the statement.

The dueling responses from SLDN  and Servicemembers United (SU) haven’t helped matters in terms of making the DADT repeal survey process a smooth one.  SU and SLDN continue to butt heads in opposing advice to  gay, lesbian and bisexual servicemembers in participating or not in the DADT survey, according to Chris Geidner of Metro Weekly.

In press release tatement SU executive director Alex Nicholson said:

“While it remains safe for gay and lesbian troops to participate in this survey, it is simply impossible to imagine a survey with such derogatory and insulting wording, assumptions, and insinuations going out about any other minority group in the military.”

But SLDN executive director Aubrey Sarvis stated in an opposing opinion in a press release from the org:

“As a legal services group, our focus is on ensuring adequate legal protections for those gay and lesbian service members that participate in the surveys.  We continue to have discussions with DOD and are working to make sure gay and lesbian service members are protected.  At this time, our warning stands that gay and lesbian service members should not take the survey unless adequate legal protections are put in place.”

Nope. We’re not making this up. And for now we’re not going to offer an opinion on the ridiculousness being demonstrated by these organizations. The following is the full statement from Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell responding to latest survey drama.

Metro Weekly: LGBT Groups Still Split On DOD Troops Survey

Possibly Related Posts:

• Service Members United Prepares For DADT Congress Lobbying Blitz, SLDN Threatens Harry Reid Protest
• Army Now Has Inbox For Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Comments, Opinions
• DADT Report Highlights Waste, Costs, Damage To Troops
• Even After Repeal The Scars For Some Victims Of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Will Never Go Away
• DADT Survey: Gates Now Begging Troops To Do It