Al Franken DADT Speech

Al Franken gave a stirring speech on the Senate floor about the insanity of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Franken recounts during a USO show in 2006 and making a DADT joke. After the show, female soldiers came up to Franken and him they were gay. Franken is moved nearly to tears giving the speech.

Let me also briefly tell you about my experience. Before I was a Senator, I did a number of USO tours over the years. And on each tour, I was more and more impressed by the men and women of our military.

I always did Don't Ask Don't Tell material, and over the years that I did the tours, you could feel the change in the military.

I was on, I think, my seventh tour. As we always did, we had an eclectic show, and it was a long show too. Most of the troops would be standing for four hours during the show, though I remember during this one particular show at one of our bases, there was a group of female soldiers sitting in the bleachers who were particularly enthusiastic.

The troops loved the show, probably because otherwise they spent all of their time either in danger, or incredibly bored.

So I got to my Don't Ask Don't Tell material. "One thing I don't get," I'd say, "is Don't Ask Don't Tell. The bravest serve. Take your commander, for instance. He's one of the bravest men ever to serve in the U.S. military. And he's also one of the gayest. General, stand up, thank you!" The troops loved this, they thought it was hilarious, everyone was cheering and laughing - maybe especially those female soldiers up in the bleachers.

And at the end of the show, there was a very moving performance of a patriotic song, which was always very emotional. The commander gave each of us a flag that flew over the base - I still have it in my office - and he told me, "Al, keep telling those Don't Ask Don't Tell jokes." And that group of female soldiers up in the bleachers came up to me after the show to tell me how much they loved my Don't Ask Don't Tell material, and that it was personally important to them.