Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-NY) challenged Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice today to explain why the State Department is complaining of a critical lack of Farsi and Arabic language specialists when the Pentagon has discharged 55 gays and lesbians fluent in the languages under Don't Ask,Don't Tell.

"For some reason, the military seems more afraid of gay people than they are (of) terrorists, but they're very brave with the terrorists. If the terrorists ever got hold of this information, they'd get a platoon of lesbians to chase us out of Baghdad," said Ackerman.

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a group which seeks to end discrimination and harrassment of gays in the military, upon hearing the Congressman's words, added, "Secretary Rice would have no trouble finding gay linguists. In fact, our government could go a long way in addressing the shortage of language expertise by doing just as Congressman Ackerman suggests. SLDN would be happy to introduce Secretary Rice to our many clients who speak Arabic but have been dismissed because of the ban."

You can read ADA's policy on Don't Ask, Don't Tell here.