Statement of Aaron Belkin, Director, Michael D. Palm Center, University of California, Santa Barbara
Date: April 26, 2007
Press Contact: Nathaniel Frank, Senior Research Fellow, The Michael D. Palm Center, University of California, Santa Barbara, 805-893-5664, NF15@NYU.EDU
SANTA BARBARA, CA, April 26, 2007 - Mike Huckabee, the conservative former governor of Arkansas and current Republican presidential candidate, this week questioned the need for the military¹s current policy barring open gays from service. A staunch opponent of abortion and gay marriage, Huckabee said what mattered most in the military was "whether a person can do his or her job," and said he was "not sure that being homosexual should automatically disqualify a person from the military."
Perhaps because our military is stretched thin, fewer people are defending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and polls have shown that a majority of the public, including a majority of Republicans, favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly. The question now is whether Congressional and military leadership will take a fresh look at the evidence on this issue.
The Michael D. Palm Center, formerly the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, is a research institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The Center uses rigorous social science to inform public discussions of controversial social issues, enabling policy outcomes to be informed more by evidence than by emotion. Its data-driven approach is premised on the notion that the public makes wise choices on social issues when high-quality information is available. For more information, visit www.palmcenter.org.