it’s like this. you can be a hate-mongering “Christian” like Palin or Limbaugh and brag about it, but you can’t be gay and talk about it. as simple as that. obama and co. can take measures to repeal this ban if they want to. the point is THEY DON’T WANT TO.

I’d think white supremicists and Christian fundamentalists are a bigger threat to unit cohesion than gays ever were. And what about all the sexual assaults of female soldiers? That can’t be good.

Sweet! plus what WATS and puppethead said.

Hopefully this to shall pass… and all will be free to be who they want to be..

I’m still wonderin’ where is this change I voted for?

If you look at the DADT legislation, there has always been an out. Obama could direct Gates to find “separation of the member would not be in the best interest of the armed forces” in all such cases.

I too agree with WATS and puppethead. Obama could have done this in his first month in office and then pushed for legislation to make it permanent.

It is. There is, sadly, more than a little bit of that in the military than is desirable. The Christofascists are command-sponsored in the Air Force because of the connection in Colorado Springs and the “mega churches” there. Colorado Springs is where the majority of the AF leadership passes through on their way into the hierarchy via the AF Academy; in the Army there have been documented cases of Klan and neo-Aryan Brotherhood incidents in places like Bragg and it’s surrounding environs.

The Navy had it’s growing pains, from my experience it did a pretty fair job of stomping down on the racism in it’s ranks, but it took two Vietnam-era mutinies to do it and leadership from the “top down” to impose the rules and a zero-tolerance policy with respect to racism. I don’t know if that’s lasted until today, but I’m hopeful that it has.

Looks like fuel for yet another wingnut petulant frenzy.

Colin Powell, Powell’s former aide Lawrence Wilkerson, and John Shalikashvili have all said that DADT should be reviewed and/or repealed. That’s two former chairmen of the JCS and a rather well-known aide to one of them. It’s about time it was changed.

It’s in the mail.

Oh, good grief! They’re just afraid of men being hit on by other men!

Do they even care about the huge number of women who are already being sexually assaulted in the armed forces every year? Something tells me they are not.

I take it you have never served in the military….

I take it you never served a purpose.

Someday, this chapter in American military history will be known simply as “Fear of Fa&&ots.”

I’m willing to bet more then you have.

The funniest part of this is the part they aren’t mentioning–how they know that knowing that a bunkmate is homosexual does not hurt unit cohesion, morale, or whatever. They know because they have been trying it out ever since the don’t ask/tell policy started.

People living at close quarters can figure this stuff out. An ex-navy man I know–who was not politically correct on the subject of homosexuality–told me that they all pretty much knew who was oriented how. There was a gay guy in his berth. But he didn’t have to date the guy–he was just working with him. As long as the guy was good at his job and wouldn’t get anybody killed, he was OK. The ones nobody wanted to be around were the dangerous guys and the slackers.

So basically, the asking and telling is not an issue in the ranks any more. The military chain of command is now officially OK with it. It’s only the civilians politicians that get the vapors over the idea.

The problem is that Obama will likely be facing the Hick or Palin in 2012. You won’t be able to move forward on gay rights until 2013.