Obama Sends Handwritten Letter to Gay Soldier Ousted From the Military Promising to Repeal DADT

Posted by Satyam Khanna, Think Progress at 7:33 AM on May 8, 2009.

In January, Sandy Tsao, an army officer based out of St. Louis, MO, told her superiors that she is gay — a violation of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law. Tsao then wrote to President Obama, urging him to change the DADT policy: “I do hope, Mr. President, that you will help us to win the war against prejudice.” On May 5, Tsao received a handwritten letter from Obama with a pledge to repeal DADT at some point:

In the letter, Obama wrote that he is “committed to changing our current policy” but that “it will take some time to complete (partly because it needs Congressional action).” Yesterday, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), who has sponsored legislation repealing DADT, discussed the issue with Rachel Maddow, saying, “I’d like to see us move it by this summer, and I think we can.”

Tagged as: military, dadt, lgbt rights

Satyam Khanna is a Research Associate for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.