An anonymous group has attacked Chuck
Hagel, President Barack Obama's choice to lead the Pentagon, as
anti-gay.
The group, which is going by the name
Use Your Mandate, urges Senators to reject Hagel's nomination for
Secretary of Defense, claiming he is “anti-woman, anti-choice,
anti-Israel, anti-gay and pro-assault weapon” in an ad which ran
during multiple Sunday morning news shows. (The video is embedded on
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According to The
Huffington Post, the group “is made up mostly of Democrats
and independents” and is not disclosing its membership because many
of those involved are close to the Obama administration.
Citing Hagel's poor voting record on
gay rights in the Senate and comments he made in 1998 toward James
Hormel, the openly gay former U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg, gay GOP
group Log Cabin Republicans has led the charge against Hagel – a
Republican – running expensive full-page ads in The New York
Times and The Washington Post opposing his nomination.
Hagel recently apologized for calling
Hormel a bad fit for the post of ambassador because he's “openly,
aggressively gay.” And in a letter to California Senator Barbara
Boxer, he endorsed repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” and
committed to extending equal benefits to the families of LGBT troops.
“Never in his life, in any public
capacity, has he done anything in the positive department for gay
rights,” a source close to the group told The Huffington Post.
“Everything that the group is doing is aimed at starting this
discussion, and if he doesn't meet the criteria and can't answer some
very basic questions with some familiarity and make some commitments
that are really no different than the president's really, then what's
the point? … What did we fight this election for? Is this the best
that we can do?”
OutServe-SLDN, a group which represents
LGBT troops, criticized the ad in a statement given to BuzzFeed.
“At OutServe-SLDN, we are
disappointed to see this kind of dirty politics make an appearance in
the debate about who our next Secretary of Defense should be,” said
Allyson Robinson, the group's executive director. “Senator Hagel
has appropriately apologized and has taken steps to build trust with
our LGBT military families – specifically, by committing to extend
the benefits that may be made available to them even while the
so-called Defense of Marriage Act is still on the books. Much
remains to be done – and we still look to Senator Hagel to speak
out on other issues important to LGBT service members and their
families – but anonymous, unaccountable attacks do nothing to move
the ball forward for our brave LGBT men and women in uniform.”