Fox News Watchdog

In a Washington Times column, Frank Gaffney falsely asserted that Americans “overwhelmingly … oppose conferring on homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender individuals and hermaphrodites a nonexistent ‘right’ to serve openly in the military.” In fact, numerous polls show “overwhelmingly” high support for allowing gays to serve openly in the military.

Gaffney claims
“American people” oppose gays in the military

From Gaffney’s February 2 column in
The Washington Times:

When the dust settles on this
battle, my bet is that the American people and their elected representatives
will continue overwhelmingly to oppose conferring on homosexuals, lesbians,
bisexuals, transgender individuals and hermaphrodites a nonexistent “right” to
serve openly in the military. We will thus avoid breaking the all-volunteer
force, and it will be, instead, Mr. Obama’s standing as commander in chief that
will have suffered further grievous and perhaps irreparable harm. [The Washington Times, 2/2/10]

Numerous polls
find strong support for gays serving openly in the
military

Gallup: 69 percent “in
favor of military service by openly gay men and lesbians.”
Results of a May 2009 USA
Today/Gallup poll
indicated that “69% of Americans in favor of military service by openly gay men
and lesbians.”

Quinnipiac: 56
percent say “ban on openly gay men and women in the military should be
repealed.” An April 2009 Quinnipiac poll
concluded, “The ban on openly gay
men and women in the military should be repealed, American voters say 56-37
percent, including 50-43 percent among voters with family in the
military.”

CNN: poll shows “81 percent of
respondents believe openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the
U.S. military.”
A January 15, 2009, CNN.com article
reported:
“Public opinion appears to be shifting on the matter. A CNN/Opinion Research
Corp. poll conducted December 19-21 found that 81 percent of
respondents believe openly gay people should be allowed to serve in the
U.S. military, while 17 percent said
they shouldn’t.”

Washington Post: 75
percent “said gay
people who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to serve.”
Results from a July 2008 ABC
News/Washington Post poll indicated
that 75 percent of respondents support allowing openly gay individuals to serve
in the military. A July 19, 2008,  Washington Post article reported,
“Seventy-five percent of Americans in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll said
gay people who are open about their sexual orientation should be allowed to
serve in the U.S. military, up from 62 percent in early 2001 and 44 percent in
1993.”

Wash. Times
has
a history of anti-gay rhetoric,
including smears of gays in the military

Newspaper’s
attacks include warnings against
“gay agenda,” smears of gays in the military, and minimizing AIDS
epidemic. Media
Matters for America has compiled
an extensive — though by no means all-inclusive — list of anti-gay rhetoric since
the late 1980s, including the paper’s warnings against the “gay agenda,” attacks
on the possibility of gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military,
minimizing of the AIDS epidemic, and attacks on gay relationships and gay
rights.

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