Gay military question still up in air

[joeybee12]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26704.html

When gay rights advocates march on Washington in October, they’ll be confronting a bleak political landscape in their effort to allow gays to openly serve in the military.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) says the Senate is swamped and has little time on the schedule for this fight. The Pentagon brass is reticent and wants a go-slow strategy, while a majority of the rank and file in the military opposes changing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law. With no Republican co-sponsors for a repeal, key moderate Democrats such as Sens. Jim Webb of Virginia and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas remain uncommitted.

And the Senate’s patron saint of this cause, Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), died before being able to introduce long-promised bipartisan legislation to overturn "don’t ask, don’t tell."

“We have a very heavy, busy agenda and a few months left to do it,” Durbin said in an interview recently. “So it may not be now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be soon.”

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You know, the way Obama handled the health care debate, almost makes me glad he's ignoring DADT and DOMA.

[BOSSHOG]

1. DADT incredibly stupid "law."

Meanwhile, alcoholics, spouse abusers and morons who can't balance a checkbook continue to "serve." I've been there, I've seen them.

The only group of Americans DADT should apply to is conservatives.

[joeybee12]

4. Hopefully someday there will be a stigma attached to being a conservative...

...and they'll have to go underground.

[dsc]

2. I am going to be honest

I would prefer ENDA to happen before ending DADT. I think we should get our rights first and then serve in the military not the other way around.

[joeybee12]

3. Don't hold your breath on either...

...ENDA should be a slam dunk since it's gotten close before, BUT...

[Toasterlad]

5. Why Is It a Question of Priorities?

I am pissed that gay people can't serve openly in the military. I am pissed that we don't have employment protection. I am pissed that we can't get married.

I am pissed that we're second-class citizens.

If you ask me what rights of the many that straight people have that we do not that I'd rather have right now, I will tell you that it doesn't matter one fucking bit. Passing ENDA will not make me happy. Repealling DADT or DOMA won't make me happy. I will not be satisfied with anything less than full equality, and the fact that it's doled out in drips and drabs by people who consider equality a huge imposition and expect me to be GRATEFUL for "granting" the rights that they have no moral or legal ability to withhold in the first place, that just makes me more furious.

[dsc]

7. I don't think we should be serving in the military until after we get the right to keep jobs we are

qualified for.

[Toasterlad]

8. Serving In the Military Isn't a Job We're Qualified For?

[dsc]

9. I'm not saying it isn't

but someday there may be a draft and I don't think we should be drafted when we don't have equal rights.

[David Zephyr]

10. Prioritizing so many valid, pressing concerns is important.

First, ENDA, DADT, Marriage/Civil Union Equality, Adoption Rights and more. So many, all needed.

But I also feel that ENDA is a cornerstone that really needs to be given prominence.

[IndianaGreen]

11. We won't get ENDA and we won't get DADT

:-(

[Prism]

6. The President needs to save his political capital!

So he can totally squander it in other areas.

I'm almost becoming fine with it. We were told LGBT issues had to be back-burnered so the administration could focus like a highly intelligent laser on health care reform. Well, I'm glad LGBT issues fell by the wayside, otherwise we might not have this masterful, on message, incredibly successful bill by August . . . oh, wait.

Jesus. If this is how the administration behaves on its signiature issue, I'd hate to see how they'd push for LGBT progress that they're, at best, totally indifferent to.

I really hope there is a public option in the final bill. Otherwise, we'll have been set aside not for progress, but as the hors d'ourves to the main course of screwing over the rest of America.

At least we're sort of used to getting slapped hard in the face. Some people seem totally unprepared. Those are the ones I really feel sorry for.