The House voted 250-175 yesterday to repeal the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) policy. After the Senate last week rejected a DADT repeal, as part of an overall defense appropriation bill, the House re-framed the issue, making repeal a new, stand-alone bill; that bill is the one that passed the House yesterday. Votes in favor of repeal included 15 Republicans, a 10-vote increase from the previous House vote on the matter. Now, the bill goes to the Senate, where supporters are cautiously optimistic it can be passed. Some Republican senators, including Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Dick Lugar of Indiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Olympia Snowe of Maine have indicated they may vote for repeal this time around.
The tide of public opinion has certainly turned in favor of letting gay men and lesbians serve openly in the military; however, it’s still unclear whether the Senate is capable of facing up to how much Americans’ views on the subject have changed. Last month’s Pentagon report made clear that, for an enormous majority of active duty service members, it’s simply irrelevant whether another soldier is gay or not. In addition, Defense Secretary Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have repeatedly given their support to repealing DADT. Gen. David Petraeus also fully supports getting rid of DADT; and last week, Petraeus’ top aide, Marvin Hill, told reporters that if some troops can’t deal with serving with gays, they should leave the service.
Frankly, at this point in the long DADT debate, you have to wonder, as did Jason Linkins of Huffington Post, exactly who is still in favor of keeping DADT? Linkins pointed to an extensive Washington Post/ABC News poll, which shows 77 percent of Americans in favor of repealing DADT; what’s startling about the poll is that support for repeal cuts across nearly all political and social lines. Liberal Democrats? 92 percent in favor of repealing DADT. Conservative Republicans? 67 percent in favor. Independents: 74 percent. White Evangelicals: 70 percent. Those with “no religion”: 84 percent.
So, really, who’s against it? Well, let’s see, there’s John “I’ll let the military decide” McCain, who has dug in his anti-gay heels on the issue; there’s Texas congressman/cartoon-character Louie “Terror Babies” Gohmert, who said yesterday that the Pentagon report’s results were rigged, and warned that repealing DADT would be a threat to the nation’s very existence. Of course, we can add many members of the so-called Christian Right, who will forever be enamored of their Leave It To Beaver fantasy of American life. And then there’s Marine Commandant General James Amos, who argued before Congress that Marines in combat could be so distracted by the fact that the soldier next to them was gay, they could forget about all those enemy bombs exploding around them and lose their lives. Ridiculous arguments like Amos’ and Gohmert’s, and McCain’s brand of intransigent fear of homosexuality, are all that opponents of DADT repeal have left. And yet, the chances for repeal are still up in the air in the Senate? That’s the most outrageous part of the whole debate.
Enjoy this video of Rep. Gohmert railing against DADT repeal; at around the 50 second mark, he unleashes a stunningly ignorant tirade about what happens to countries that allow gays to serve openly in the military. Gohmert, apparently, has never heard of present-day Israel, nor the ancient Spartans.
This article appears in Dec 14-20, 2010.
a piece i wrote on the dont ask dont tell gay law in usa: http://onefaceinamillion.com/dont-ask-dont-tell-the-conundrum-in-the-us-army/2125/
I should preface my remarks by stating the following: I was a gay crossdressing transvestite for the SSOC! I knows for a fact that simply being a crossdresser does not bar one from employment with the C.I.A. I freely admit that my motivations were at times somewhat murky,but I did learn a lot and I sympathize with my married heterosexual bretheren who sought out my succorance, and in fact exhibted
homosexual tendencies! That said,
I’d like to think that my work was undercover much like the texas author John Howard Griffin
in his seminal work Black Like Me! You see folks Sexuality is a
Continuum! Bona Fide homosexual
activity takes place in the animal kingdom. As far as I know
man is the only species that kills physically and spiritually
in the name of cultural mores. With the exception of possibly incest there are no universal taboos sociologically speaking. We must learn to differentiate
what part of our species is culturally determined and what is
biologically determined! Live and Let Live is my motto. Learn and attempt a dialogue wih decidely different members of your species! You will be surprised!
Ah, to have the life of a(n allegedly) gay soldier in Obama’s Army:
“Interviews with several people directly familiar with the conditions of Bradley Manning’s detention, ultimately including a Quantico brig official (Lt. Brian Villiard) who confirmed much of what they conveyed, establishes that the accused leaker is subjected to detention conditions likely to create long-term psychological injuries.
Since his arrest in May, Manning has been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems. He nonetheless was declared from the start to be a “Maximum Custody Detainee,” the highest and most repressive level of military detention, which then became the basis for the series of inhumane measures imposed on him.
From the beginning of his detention, Manning has been held in intensive solitary confinement. For 23 out of 24 hours every day — for seven straight months and counting — he sits completely alone in his cell. Even inside his cell, his activities are heavily restricted; he’s barred even from exercising and is under constant surveillance to enforce those restrictions. For reasons that appear completely punitive, he’s being denied many of the most basic attributes of civilized imprisonment, including even a pillow or sheets for his bed (he is not and never has been on suicide watch). For the one hour per day when he is freed from this isolation, he is barred from accessing any news or current events programs.”
Come again! The system has to
make an example out of someone in
order to serve their “bent” and broken moral sense or rule of law!
It’s a pity that the FBI informant and alleged blackhat hacker who gained his confidence and handed him over was not widely exposed for his exhibitionist and attention
seeking misbehaviour! Among his peers he’s persona non grata. As for me I’m in the army that pays the most with a guaranteed bonus if I exceed mission objectives
Because every prison guard is a trained psychologist.