from Mother Jones:
They've done it with civil rights. They're doing it with health care reform. Some even hope to do it with every federal law. But now, one conservative is asserting his state's rights to beat back equality for gays in the armed forces.
Just two days after the Senate voted to allow gays to serve openly in the US military, Virginia statehouse delegate Bob Marshall is crafting a bill that would take a big chunk out of the federal government's expected repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Marshall proposes a full ban of gays in the Virginia National Guard, insisting that the Constitution gives individual states power over "the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia."
"The Constitution never would have been ratified if states were not reserved unqualified control of the militia, now called the National Guard," Marshall told the Washington Post. Marshall, by the way, represents a swath of Northern Virginia that includes Manassas—a town that, 149 years ago, saw its "Army of Northern Virginia" openly assert itself against the US Army in the First Battle of Bull Run.
He insists that his bill is strategic, but in fact, it's laced with states' rights reasoning: "After 232 years of prohibiting active, open homosexuals from enlisting in our military, President Obama and a majority in Congress are conducting a social experiment with our troops and our national security," he says. ............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/12/can-virginia-ban-gays-its-military
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