The battle to overturn the military’s “ludicrous” and “undermining” “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual service members is marching forward with a federal lawsuit and constitutional challenge to the policy.

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) announced at a luncheon in La Jolla on Saturday that 73 co-supporters have backed an act that would allow gays, lesbians and bisexuals to serve openly in the military.

The Urban Institute estimated that there are more than 65,000 gays, lesbians and bisexuals currently serving in the armed forces. Two to three service members are fired every day after their sexual orientation is unveiled, SLDN estimates, totaling 10,000 discharges in the past decade.

C. Dixon Osburn, co-founder and executive director of SLDN, said “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ undermines the U.S. military. “People should feel empowered and not have this sword hanging over their heads, worrying about their careers,” he said. “If they banned all [65,000] of us, that would equate to half the troops in Iraq. It’s ludicrous.”

Osburn said SLDN’s goal was to get 40 co-supporters for their Military Readiness Enhancement Act, but they now have 77 co-supporters from both parties. “There’s an increasing conversation inside and outside the military that now is the time for us to move on,” he added.

President Bill Clinton’s attempt to end the ban on gays in the military backfired in 1993 when Congress intervened to make the ban law and prevent any similar action from future commanders in chief.

The policy has cost U.S taxpayers $191million to enforce in just over a decade, the General Accounts Office found.

Osburn reassured members that although the present administration is more conservative than Clinton’s, with military recruiters struggling to meet their goals and enlistment down by 50 percent, “[America] has a crisis in the offing, and Congress has to work out how they can retain the best and the brightest. They need us now. They need gays in the military.”

He pointed to surveys that showed between 66 and 79 percent of Americans now support openly gay service members – a 13-percent increase in 10 years.

Alongside growing momentum for their Military Readiness Enhancement Act, SLDN is also co-counsel in Cook v. Rumsfeld, a court case representing 12 lesbian and gay veterans seeking reinstatement in the U.S armed forces.

Filed on Dec. 6 in a Massachusetts district court, the case could eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

SLDN said each plaintiff in the lawsuit served honorably in the U.S Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. Together they have served more than 65 years in the armed forces, each during the current war in Iraq, and three in direct operation in the Middle East.

One of the plaintiffs in Cook v. Rumsfeld, Derek Sparks, a decorated veteran with a 14- year career in the Navy, flew from Seattle to rally support in San Diego.

Sparks was discharged from the Navy in 2002 after an allegation of homosexual activity launched an investigation. Sparks eventually contended that he was gay, but continued to vehemently deny the acts alleged.

Sparks fought back emotion as he said, “It’s hard to imagine what would have happened and where I would be today had SLDN not been there for me. There are a lot of rumors about what they [the military] do to gays and lesbians; the SLDN stop a lot of that, thank God.”

He added that he believed the lawsuit would benefit the Military Readiness Enhancement Act and added that the thousands of gay, lesbian and bisexual service members presently serving, and the 1 million retired veterans who are gay, lesbian or bisexual are the “best reason” to support the SLDN.

Supporters are invited to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., May 7-10 for SLDN’s third annual lobby day to call for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

For more information, visit this article online at www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to SLDN’s website, or call (202) 328-3244.