First gay nominated to head a military service to get confirmation hearing

When Eric Fanning, the first openly gay person nominated to head a US military service, stepped out of being Acting Secretary of the Army last week, why he had to do it was a mystery. The mystery was finally solved Monday when Sen. John McCain, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, “indicated he and others on the committee had concerns Fanning would be violating federal law if he kept serving as acting secretary while waiting for his confirmation vote,” according to the Huffington Post.

"’You don't put people in jobs until they are confirmed by the Senate. That’s pretty straightforward,’ McCain said last week.”

The HuffPost article continued, saying, “Since he relinquished his role as acting secretary, Fanning is now cleared for a hearing, committee spokesman Dustin Walker told HuffPost on Monday.”

The Pentagon does not agree with Sen. McCain’s allegation that considering Fanning’s confirmation while he served as Acting Secretary might be breaking the law. DefenseNews.com reported last week, “’Mr. Fanning's designation as acting secretary of the Army was consistent with longstanding executive branch interpretation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act,’ Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Joe Sowers said in a statement.

“‘Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, however, expressed some concerns about that interpretation of the Act. As a show of comity to address these concerns, Fanning has agreed to step out of his acting role to focus on achieving confirmation in the near future.’”

President Obama announced in September that he was nominating longtime Pentagon official Eric Fanning, who is openly gay, to be Secretary of the Army.

"’Eric brings many years of proven experience and exceptional leadership to this new role,’ Obama said in a written statement. ‘I am grateful for his commitment to our men and women in uniform, and I am confident he will help lead America's soldiers with distinction. I look forward to working with Eric to keep our Army the very best in the world,’" the AP quoted the President as saying in his announcement.

According to TheHill.com, “The confirmation hearing for Fanning, who would be the first openly gay service secretary if confirmed, is scheduled for Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“Fanning would then have to be confirmed by the full Senate. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) has vowed to block Fanning's confirmation over the president's plan to transfer Guantánamo detainees to a U.S. location that could potentially be in his state.”

According to Salon.com, it isn’t as simple as that. Anti-gay bias by right-wing politicians may also enter in. A Salon article said, “Last fall, President Obama drew criticism from leading cultural conservatives, including former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, for nominating Eric Fanning for the post of secretary of the Army. The nomination was a historic first because Fanning is openly gay, and no openly gay person has ever led a branch of the military. Huckabee and others claimed that the Fanning nomination was a presidential pander and ‘appeasing America’s homosexuals.’

“Sen. Pat Roberts, who has a decidedly anti-gay record, has put a ‘hold’ on Fanning’s confirmation in the Senate. Roberts, a Kansas Republican, says he put the hold in place as a protest of Obama’s potential executive action to close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Of course, there are dozens of other ways to protest, block and/or slow that process, but blocking Fanning’s confirmation kills two birds with one stone.

“He can voice his opposition to closing Guantanamo Bay, and continue to build upon his unblemished anti-gay record. The truth is, if Gitmo was the primary motivation for holding up holding up Department of Defense appointments, then Roberts would have also put a hold on Under Secretary of the Army Patrick Murphy, who was confirmed as the number two civilian in the Army earlier this month. Murphy isn’t gay,” the Salon article continued.

Author Jimmy LaSalvia, who wrote the Salon article, closed the piece by saying, “What’s at play here isn’t anything new from the GOP. It’s what I call the ‘any reason except that they’re gay takedown.’ I wrote about it my book, No Hope: Why I Left the GOP (and You Should Too). You see, discrimination against gays because they are gay is unacceptable in America today, so the anti-gay crowd searches for another reason to point to as their reason to ‘take down’ and discriminate against gay people.”

The Gayly – January 19, 2016 @ 11:20 a.m.