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Bryan Bender at the Boston Globe has an interesting piece about how the Obama administration plans to junk don’t-ask-don’t-tell. The short answer is that it’s a matter of when and not if, and Obama intends to secure uniformed and congressional buy-in before seeking new legislation. Judging from the piece, everyone’s conscious of avoiding the Clinton administration’s mistakes, and so they want to be cautious in seeding the bed.
OK. Being neither gay nor a servicemember nor a political strategist I’m not really in a position to adjudicate the merits of that, and if I were gay I probably would question the sincerity of someone who advocated a go-slow approach. I guess that I’d add that if you’re going to overturn DADT it helps to have a progressive infrastructure set up to help out on advocacy. Getting servicemembers and veterans out making the case that restricting gays from serving while allowing in felons doesn’t make sense. Check out this Brandon Friedman post at VetVoice for a good example.
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Hm. That didn’t work…
http://www.illdoctrine.com/200….._homo.html
The whole “controversy” has always kind of cracked me up. Just about anybody who’s ever served in uniform knows he/she served with gay people.
Hell, babe, I was IN COMBAT with gay guys. And the obvious is absolutely true. It’s probably easier for a lot of guys in combat, where you judge guys on their actions, how they hold, whether they would come and get you if you got fucked up. But even so, most people get over their preconcieved notions pretty quick once in daily contact. And for most folks, unit cohesiveness creates bonds that overcome otherwise petty classifications.
You might be black, white, mexican, gay, whatever, it’s much more important that you are CAVALRY….
mikey
The least the CinC could do (while he mulls over how to proceed) would be to end the ruination of peoples’ lives. Just stop the investigations, courts-martial and witch hunts everywhere they still exist. Make it clear that the brass are going to study the issue, but until then no servicemembers’ lives will be subject to scrutiny.
In other words, start enforcing the “Don’t Ask” part of DADT.
Teddy makes a very strong point. The discharges under DADT damage the service member for the rest of their life since being dishonorably discharged is about all that will ever be known by potential employers, and the public if the person wishes to hold public office. Lives are destroyed wantonly.
I’m not sure when it should be done, but all that have been discharged under DADT should be able to apply to have their records corrected to ‘honorable discharge’ rather than dishonorable or ‘general’ (which has the same effect is dishonorable).
Repealing DADT isnt’ the end of it either. The UCMJ criminalizes being gay as it stands, and that is the source of endless misfortune. A clear line between ‘on duty’ and ‘off duty’ sexual behavior needs to drawn, for both gays and straights.
Then you’d be dense and gay.
It’s Obama’s 2nd week, nobody needs you to explain the Clinton reference and the man just got zero GOP votes from his “save us from great depression 2″ bill. He’s black, he’s not a great white shark. The “bite off more than you can chew” rule still applies.
In fact, haven’t I seen you and many others else cite DADT as *precisely* the kind of thing you hoped Obama would avoid, because it was pretty much a metaphor for wasting your political capital ?
If you were an old person you might ask why he hasn’t proposed fixing social security before April. There’s a reason we don’t call you that often grandpa. You’re kind of nuts to talk to.