Pentagon to give soldiers "wedding leave"?

From the AP:

Same-sex spouses of military members could get health care, housing and other benefits by the end of August under a proposal being considered by the Pentagon. But earlier plans to provide benefits to gay partners who are not married may be reversed. 

A draft Defense Department memo obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press says the department instead may provide up to 10 days of leave to military personnel in same-sex relationships so they can travel to states where they can marry legally.

I have no problem with this.  if marriage is the gold standard, then by all means, give soliders/sailors/airmen  an opportunity to go get married, so that their families can be eligible for benefits.

Good on the Pentagon.

First gay general appointed. Go Army!

From the LA Times

During a promotion ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, a proud wife placed a star insignia on her spouse's uniformed shoulder — the official mark of an Army brigadier general. 

With that simple gesture, Brig. Gen. Tammy Smith became the country's first openly gay general. 

....On Friday, more than 70 people clustered inside an auditorium at Arlington's Women in Military Service for America Memorial. 

Smith, then a colonel, strode in with her commanding officer at the stroke of 4 p.m. The audience sang the national anthem and a young boy led the Pledge of Allegiance.
The announcer presented Smith’s father. Then came an introduction: “Col. Smith's partner, Miss Tracey Hepner.” 

The audience burst into applause.
....
Hepner and Smith could not be reached for comment. In an interview with Stars and Stripes, Smith said she understood the social significance of her promotion, even though she viewed that as secondary. 

“All of those facts are irrelevant,” Smith was quoted as saying. “I don’t think I need to be focused on that. What is relevant is upholding Army values and the responsibility this carries.”

A wedding story: the first wedding on base

I dare you to read this article from Slate without tearing up....

At the reception, I meet Will and Erwynn’s community. Their initial guest count was 80. But by June it had almost doubled, as they got more yeses than they expected and invited friends who they discovered, to their surprise, were supportive of their union. The crowd is mostly straight couples under 40. Several have brought their young children along. There are a few old friends of Will and Erwynn’s, but mostly it’s co-workers and friends they’ve made in the last two years, including a handful of people they met through Outserve, an organization for active-duty gay and lesbian service members. By Will’s estimate, 80 to 85 percent of the couple’s friends are straight. Pastor Rick is there, along with his wife. I ask more than 20 guests whether this is their first same-sex ceremony. Every single straight person says yes. 

Will gives his thank-you speech. “As some of you know, we don’t have a lot of family here,” he says. “But you all being here shows us that friends are our true family.” After they hold each other close for their first dance, Erwynn remarks with amazement, “I never thought I’d be able dance with a man like this on a military installation.”

The repeal of DADT: the lies they told

By now, you've seen this image, I'm sure, of the US Navy petty officer claiming the traditional right of the "first kiss" after the ship comes home.  It's a long tradition, with a twist:  this time it's two young women.  And no one really cares that they are a same-sex couple serving openly.  Far more important, as any servicemember will tell you, is that the sailor is home from the sea.

There has been little real response to DADT repeal. Indeed, the biggest thing to notice is how little it's been noticed.  A Marine officer goes to the Marine Ball with a boyfriend.   A decorated airman can finish his career honorably.   Even the Marine commandant who was originally opposed to repeal, is pleased at its results.  And I'm not particularly surprised.   Living in San Diego, I  know quite a few military, largely Navy but a few Marines, and they are above all professionals.  Of COURSE they've done what they should--it's what a professional force does.

And, frankly, sexuality is a non-issue to them, across the board-- from BP's cousin, an aviation technician from a carrier who danced at our wedding in his dress blues, to the young sailor my stepdaughter dated briefly, who had no issue with her gay parents or his gay colleagues (and yes, even before DADT repeal, he knew who they were), to the retired Navy Captain in his 80s who always greets us with a big hug, and asks how the battle for marriage equality is going.

Writing in the HuffPo, Nathaniel Frank challenges those who made dire predictions about DADT destroying the American military to admit they were wrong (emphasis mine):

During the years I spent researching and writing about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," I frequently pointed out that when other countries lifted their bans, nothing bad happened. But people weren't convinced that the same would hold true here. As my colleague Aaron Belkin has theorized, in the U.S., fear and anxiety about change had swelled into full-blown paranoia. And this sentiment was being exploited and inflamed by political opportunists. There is even firsthand evidence that military and cultural leaders exaggerated the threat to unit cohesion throughout the debate over "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," in an effort to give credibility to what was, at bottom, simple prejudice. 

....Throughout our history, opponents of equal treatment have insisted that it would wreak havoc on society, indeed that it would cause such grave disruptions that equality was an unacceptable threat to civilization. This "disruption" theory was wielded against African Americans, immigrants, women, gays and lesbians, and transgender people, to name a few. It is perhaps the sharpest tool in the arsenal of people who refuse to rise above passions and prejudice, but who know that they can't win their argument using religious and moral dogma alone. So they deploy arguments that sound secular and pragmatic -- equality will somehow harm kids, undermine the family, destroy civilization -- to mask what really amounts to feelings of discomfort, resentment or simple opposition to sharing first-class citizenship. 

The "disruption" theory was exactly what was applied -- and finally defeated -- in the effort to keep gay people from serving openly in uniform.... 

We hear that letting gay couples marry will disrupt the social fabric of American life, undermine marriage, kill a "culture of life," dry up the Western population, and threaten our civilization. If this is what was said about gay people serving openly (which it was), and if none of it happened, then the lesson is monumental: a culture of anxiety has become a politics of paranoia, which has pulled the wool over our collective eyes in service to maintaining an unjust status quo. Will we let it happen again and again and again? Will anyone be held accountable for steering us so terribly wrong?

And the other thing I'd like the naysayers to do is apologize to our military.  To assume dire consequences is to insult their professionalism.   Somehow, though, I think we'll be waiting a long time for that.

Military families mount legal challenge to DOMA

From the WaPo:

Gay and lesbian troops and veterans plan to file suit Thursday challenging the constitutionality of the federal ban on gay marriage and federal policy that defines a spouse as a person of the opposite sex....

The suit also challenges provisions of federal code regarding spouses that lawyers said bar gay couples from accessing a range of benefits provided by the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs, including military identification cards, access to bases, recreational programs, spousal support groups and burial rights at national cemeteries.

Massachusetts Army National Guard Maj. Shannon McLaughlin, 41, and her wife, Casey, 34, are serving as lead plaintiffs in the suit, which also includes five other troops and two career Army and Navy veterans. ...

Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said Wednesday that officials are “engaged in a careful and deliberate review” of whether some benefits could be extended to same-sex partners.

“Service members continue to have some benefits for which they may designate beneficiaries, regardless of sexual orientation,” Lainez said in an e-mail. But eligibility for other benefits is restricted by DOMA, she said.

At Veterans Affairs, spokesman Josh Taylor said department lawyers plan to review the case once it is filed.

Once DADT finally fell (and there wasn't much noise when it finally went), it made the repeal of DOMA inevitable. You cannot expect someone to risk their life for the country while refusing support to their families.

Pentagon to allow chaplains to perform marriages

Segregation in this country started to die when the military was integrated. Gotta hand it to the Pentagon, they can make things happen when they have to. I think the repeal of DADT will accelerate the repeal of DOMA. And now, the pentagon will allow military chaplains who choose to do so to marry same sex couples, in accordance with local laws.

From Stars and Stripes:

Starting immediately, chaplains can perform same-sex marriage and union ceremonies on U.S. military installations in locations where it doesn’t violate state or local laws, the Pentagon announced Friday.

The policy reversal follows on the heels of the repeal of the “don’t ask-don’t tell” law, Clifford Stanley, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote in a memo to the military department secretaries and service chiefs.

“A military chaplain may participate in or officiate any private ceremony, whether on or off a military installation, provided that the ceremony is not prohibited by applicable state and local law,” he wrote…..

Although it’s a core duty of military chaplains is to provide religious support — and in certain cases perform religious services — for troops with different beliefs from their own, chaplains won’t have to perform gay marriages if they don’t want to, Stanley wrote.

“[A] chaplain is not required to participate in or officiate a private ceremony if doing so would be in variance with the tenets of his or her religion or personal beliefs,” he wrote.

Fundy heads are exploding, predictably.

How will the death of DADT affect DOMA?

One of the real remaining issues with allowing open service in the military is, surprisingly, marriage.  The military traditionally takes care of the families of service people.  But the bigotry expressed by DOMA, the so called "defense of marriage act", prevents that.

Great article in the NY Times this weekend lays it out

[W]ith the final repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the coming months — and with the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in New York and the possibility of other states’ following suit — many advocates expect the number of gay and lesbian married couples in the military to rise significantly.

As those numbers grow, unequal treatment of same-sex married couples will become a source of resentment and poor morale, advocates for gay troops assert.

...Eileen Lainez, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon, said the department was studying whether smaller benefits, like free legal services, could be extended to same-sex spouses. But she said there would be “no change” in eligibility for major benefits like housing and health care when “don’t ask, don’t tell” goes away.

“The Defense of Marriage Act and the existing definition of ‘dependent’ in some laws prohibit extension of many military benefits to same-sex couples,” she said.

...One currently serving Army officer who married her same-sex partner in Massachusetts said the end of the ban would provide a huge emotional release, allowing her for the first time to talk to her fellow soldiers about her wife and two children.

But she also considers it unfair that her wife will be unable to receive health or dental care on her base, buy life insurance subsidized by the military or shop at the base commissary, grocery store and gas station, where goods are typically cheaper.

Their family, however, will be eligible for base housing because they have dependent children. But same-sex married couples without children will probably not get such housing, experts say.

“I want to be like everyone else,” the officer said. “I don’t think my family should be entitled to anything less than the people I’ve served with here and overseas.”

Imaging what it will mean to be told, as an out gay servicemember, that you can't give your spouse health insurance?

What will it mean in public perception, when the carefully folded flag from the coffin is given to a same-sex spouse?

The racial integration of the military helped drive integration nation-wide. Service members who complete their service go home, after all. (It may have been helped somewhat by the draft, which made sure that serving was widely and democratically experienced. Our professional military is quite distant from most of us now, a separate class.)

 DOMA is and remains a purely cruel and vicious law.  The families of gay servicemembers deserve the same treatment as the families of straight servicemembers. 

Update:more on the inequities here.

Same-sex partners can be listed as the person to be notified in case a service member is killed, injured, or missing, but current regulations prevent anyone other than immediate family — not same-sex spouses — from learning the details of the death. Same-sex spouses also will not be eligible for travel allowances to attend repatriation ceremonies if their military spouses are killed in action.

Can you imagine anything more insulting than not being told how your spouse died?

END DOMA NOW.

Soldier's parents work for equality (video Sunday)

More on the story here.

Married by the Navy? Not so fast.

The Navy is moving ahead on DADT repeal and has determined that Navy Chaplains may perform same-sex marriages for servicemembers in states in which same sex marriage is legal, if they choose to do so.

Naturally, this has outraged some members of Congress who are complaining.

The issue of military chaplains is one that the anti-equality forces have raised. The military, moving with due speed, has made it explicit that military chaplains have wide latitude and are not required to preach or do anything that conflicts with their religious views. However, as the Forum on Military Chaplaincy points out, there are many chaplains who work to support LGBT people in the service. Their religious freedom is indeed impinged by laws that prevent them from acting their beliefs. As they say,

It is about time there is a strong voice for people of faith who can no longer stand by and see religion used as a weapon against patriotic Americans who want to serve their country.

Here is the way to look at it:

Anti-gay chaplains: if anyone anywhere performs same sex blessings, MY religious freedom is impinged

Pro-equality chaplains: if I can't perform marriages, MY religious freedom is impinged.

As the Navy makes explicit,

"If the base is located in a state where same-sex marriage is legal, then base facilities may normally be used to celebrate the marriage," the memo read.

"There's been no change in policy, the only change that occurred was in training," Navy spokeswoman Lieutenant Alana Garas said in a telephone interview.

"It (the memo) emphasizes repeatedly that chaplains will not be required to officiate same-sex weddings if it's contrary to the tenets of their faith," Garas added.

Religious freedom means EVERYONE has freedom. It does not mean that YOU have freedom to tell ME what to believe.Bishop Gene Robinson, famously gay Bishop of the Episcopal Church lays it out here.

Why is this so difficult to grasp?

Unfortunately, the Navy has backed down.

Under pressure from more than five dozen House lawmakers, the Navy late Tuesday abruptly reversed its decision that would have allowed chaplains to perform same-sex unions if the Pentagon decides to recognize openly gay military service later this year.

In a one-sentence memo obtained by The Associated Press, Rear Adm. Mark Tidd, chief of Navy chaplains, said his earlier decision has been "suspended until further notice pending additional legal and policy review and interdepartmental coordination."

The Navy said its lawyers wanted to do a more thorough review of the legal decision that allowed Navy chaplains to receive training to perform civil unions on military bases, but only in states where same-sex unions are legal.

Unbelievably, the Congressional neanderthals seem to think DOMA makes it illegal for gay servicemembers to marry.

Kudos, however, to the forward thinkers in the USN who tried to enter the modern age. Eventually, it will happen.

Eventually.

Why it matters: military families

Although the military is working on repeal of the infamous Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT), let us not forget that it is not repealed yet. There are still servicemembers being threatened with separation over their orientation. The Republicans in Congress are still finding time for needless hearings, trying to derail repeal. And in a day to express support for military families at the White House, gay family members were explicitly excluded.

Over at Pam's House Blend, writer Keori explains in vivid terms what a gay military family suffers, thanks to DADT and DOMA, and why marriage--legal marriage, and recognition thereof--matters.

Because of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act," our families go unrecognized, unprotected, and hidden from necessity. We face the same challenges as straight military couples - the PCS moves every three years, the deployments, reintegration, injuries and PTSD. We also face additional challenges such as acquiring gainful employment and healthcare in each new duty station, moving families at our own expense, and teaching our children to never, ever talk with their friends or teachers about Mommy and Mama, or Daddy and Papa. Sometimes, we are left behind altogether due to a PCS move to an overseas duty station. Our goodbyes are said behind closed doors, in secrecy and silence.

Our families live with little things, seemingly trivial parts of the closet all LGBT people are familiar with. ... When he receives an award or is promoted, no one is there to smile, take pictures, or pin on his new rank, like recognized spouses are. When she reenlists, there is no certificate of appreciation acknowledging our sacrifices as a spouse, and no handshake from her C.O.

It means bigger things, like no commissary benefits, which would cut down on the grocery bill in these tighter economic times. It means we must do whatever it takes to stay employed, because there is no access to Tricare coverage for health care, like a real spouse would have. It means denying our children the healthcare to which they would otherwise be entitled. It means always having a fake second bedroom set up in the house so that if someone from the unit comes over, we're "just roommates."

It means life-altering, heartrending things. It means our partners being sent away to overseas duty stations where we cannot follow. Unlike opposite-sex spouses, we cannot receive command sponsorship to live with our partners on base. They will not receive separation allowance as compensation for being taken away from their mates. It means living through year-long deployments to combat zones with no support, and no knowledge of what the unit is doing. It means sending care packages from PO boxes and signing cards with the name of another person to protect their secret. It means never saying, "I love you" on a Skype call, when they and we need to hear those words the most, and talking in code instead. If something happens to them, we will not know unless their parents call. If something happens to us, they will not be told, or be allowed to come home to be with us, as a spouse would. They will not even be allowed to acknowledge their pain lest it give them away to their chain of command.

It means that we do not exist. ...

I find that heartbreaking. The ultimate proof of Why It Matters.

DADT will be repealed. And then, at some point, the President and Congress will have to face (for example) a young husband of a brave serviceman killed in Afghanistan, and tell him that his sacrifice will not be recognized, because DOMA says that he doesn't exist.

Today DADT, tomorrow DOMA?

Some thoughts for the new year from the LA TImes

Today the military, tomorrow the marriage altar?

In an era when gay Americans have seen stunning progress and many setbacks in the quest for equality under the law, many believe 2010 will go down in history as a watershed that will lead inexorably to more legal rights.

Saturday's vote in the Senate to allow the repeal of the federal law banning gays from openly serving in the military is "one of the greatest, if not the greatest, victory in the history of the movement for gay and lesbian equality," said Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a UC Santa Barbara think tank that studies the issue of gays in the military. "Going back thousands of years, the marker of a first-class citizen has always been someone who's been allowed to serve in the military."

Most countries that allow gay marriage, he added, lifted their military bans on gays first.

After all, those soldiers are going to have dependents. Is it in any way justifiable that Pfc Smith has benefits for his wife and children, while Pfc Jones has no coverage for his husband and children?

The normalization, and moralization, of Teh Gay

A couple of different commentators have responded to the DADT repeal by thinking of what this may change about society's general views of homosexuality and sexual morality.

First, Gabriel Arana, in The American Prospect, sees this as a normalization of the gay identity.

The true fight has been about what it means to say, "I am gay" -- whether the affirmation is cause for social -- and in the military, literal -- ostracism and exclusion or whether it's a neutral means of describing yourself.

....To religious conservatives, allowing gay people to say who they are is a dire threat to society and the military. … Allowing service members to know their gay colleagues is so threatening to religious conservatives because, as studies have shown, actually knowing a gay person is the best predictor of how one views homosexuality. Once service members can utter the words "I am gay" without an official state sanction, the culture-war battle has largely been won.

Sounds nice, kinda like the HRC representative who was quoted as saying

"If you can fight and die for your country, there's absolutely no reason why you can't be granted the full set of rights" that others have, including the ability to marry a same-sex partner….Americans will deduce that on their own. We won't have to say a thing."

(Keep thinking those happy thoughts, which are yet another example of the disconnect of the HRC from reality. But I digress).

I think it's too simplistic to assume that the awareness of LGB people in the military will make the entire LGBT community somehow validated. It's not all going to get better instantly. It'll help, sure, but it's not enough just to normalize Teh Gay. We are arguing to MORALIZE Teh Gay.

Writing in Slate, Will Saletan tackles this, beginning with confronting the slippery slope argument. We have to "de-sex" who we are, to distinguish this battle from a general loosening of sexual morality.

Shouldn't someone who risked their life for this county be able to marry someone of the same sex, or more than one person, or a biological relative? Or at least share a life with the person(s) he or she loves without a fear that their own government will be against them? Is bravery and valor negated if a man loves another man, or his long lost sister?

Laugh or snort if you want to, but it's a serious question. If DADT repealers are correct that sex is a matter of personal liberty and it doesn't matter "who you love," why shouldn't that defense cover polyamory and sibling couples? Switzerland is proposing to drop its incest law on exactly this basis. …

You can argue that homosexuality is quite different. But to make that case, you have to go beyond privacy and consent. You have to draw moral distinctions. Homosexuality isn't just a matter of who you love. It's a matter of who you are. And it's compatible with traditional sexual values.

The conservative assumption about homosexuality, freely vented in the DADT debate, is that it's a "behavior" and "lifestyle." But nobody who's gay experiences it that way. You don't choose to be gay. You just are gay. …

If homosexuality is an orientation rather than a preference or choice—if it's a matter of who you are, not who you love—then it's detachable from other kinds of sexual deviance. In fact, it isn't deviant. A gay person can be just as faithful and monogamous as a straight person. And military rules of sexual propriety can apply just the same….

If the fall of DADT is ultimately interpreted this way—as a rethinking of homosexuality, not of sexual morals generally—it won't satisfy libertines or libertarians. But culturally, it might prove easier to digest. Is homosexuality about who you love or who you are? That debate, unresolved by the fight over DADT, will rage on.

I agree with Saletan. I don't think that the LGBT community should be reduced to a sex act. The conservatives constantly attack us with participating in a "if it feels good, do it" hypersexualized culture. But that's not what I'm fighting for. I'm actually quite conservative on issues of sexual morality, which is why the fight for MARRIAGE matters.

(A further take-down of the "slippery slope" argument is here, which distinguishes the potential harm and societal benefits of each. Worth a read.)

What do you think?

DADT consigned to history--almost.

The DADT repeal was signed today, which will allow LGB service members to be open about who they are. (Transgenders are in a different category, militarily speaking, and are not covered by DADT nor by the repeal).

As the NY Times noted, the Defense Dept plan for repeal (PDF) was released at the same time as the survey of the troops, to little attention. It makes it clear that there is a plan for implementation that has thought through the common concerns. The theme is Leadership-Professionalism-Respect.

Regarding religious freedom:

Service members are not expected to change their personal religious or moral beliefs; however, they are expected to treat all others with dignity and respect, consistent with the core values that already exist within each Service.

Service members do not have the right to refuse duty or duty assignments based on a moral objection to another’s sexual orientation.

Service members remain obligated to follow orders that involve interaction with others who are gay or lesbian, even if an unwillingness to do so is based on strong, sincerely held, moral or religious beliefs. As expressed in the Manual for Courts-Martial regarding a Service member’s obligation to obey orders: “the dictates of a person’s conscience, religion, or personal philosophy cannot justify or excuse the disobedience of an otherwise lawful order .”

Those who disagree:

The views and beliefs of those who are opposed to “open” service by gays and lesbians on well-founded moral or religious grounds are not being rejected, and leaders have not turned their backs on them. We do not expect individual Service members to change their personal religious or moral beliefs about homosexuality, but we do expect every Service member to treat all others with dignity and respect, consistent with the core values that already exist in each Service.

Chaplains:

The Service should reiterate the principle that chaplains, in the context of their religious ministry, are not required to take actions inconsistent with their religious beliefs, but must continue to care for all Service members, and that evaluation, promotion, and assignment of chaplains will remain consistent with these long-standing principles.

What about sexual behavior?

Service standards of conduct must be sexual orientation neutral. All members are responsible for upholding and maintaining the high standards of the U S military at all times and in all places.

And those benefits...

The Defense of Marriage Act and current benefit laws do not allow the Department of Defense to extend many key benefits—including dependent medical coverage, dependent-rate BAH, and dependent-based travel and transportation allowances—to a Service member in a relationship with a same-sex partner …

For the time being, all Service members not in a Federally-recognized marriage will be treated as “single” for the purposes of benefits eligibility. The Department of Defense is studying ways to extend additional benefits to Service members to improve personal readiness, especially during deployments and other stressful times.

Of course, the backlash has begun:

• Mitch McConnell tried to block the repeal with a poison amendment to the Defense bill.
• A Virginia state Delegate wants to bar gays from the Virginia National Guard (what do we expect from the State of Hate?)
• And several antigay groups pledge to repeal the repeal.

As many pundits have noted, having gays serve openly in the military will scuttle many of the arguments the opposition has used to keep us demonized as "the other." It's a big crack in the wall of "normalcy." And it's hard to see how DOMA can last if a brave lieutenant can't have benefits for his legal husband.

Still, expect the shrill hysteria to get louder before it gets better. And of course, the repeal may be signed, but DADT is still the law until it is "certified" properly. That could take months or longer. LGB servicemembers will continue in the closet till then.

Photo from NY Times

DADT passes the Senate 65-31

Now the Pentagon can move ahead with plans to end this stupid policy. But LGBT servicemembers can't leave the closet just yet. NY Times story here.

But the Senate is still broken. B efore the DADT vote, the DREAM act got 55 votes, in the modern Senate, but that isn't enough to move it ahead. This act would give young people who grew up with illegal status a path to citizenship through the military.

DADT news

Having torpedoed the Defense bill because of Teh Gay, John McCain continues his attacks.

So they took the not-quite-repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" out of the big bill, and made it a stand alone bill.

Challenge One: get the House to pass this new bill. Which they did, bless 'em, at even higher rates than before: 250-175.

Some cover might be provided by this new ABC/WaPo poll showing 77% of Americans support DADT repeal .

Now, it's back to the Senate. Harry Reid filed cloture and it will come up for a vote tomorrow (Saturday).

Amazingly, enough REpublican Senators agree that it might actually pass.

Whether the votes are in place no longer appears in doubt. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) endorsed repeal on Wednesday, and Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) was even stronger in his support yesterday morning. By mid-day, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) confirmed that she's a "yes" as well.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) announced late yesterday that he will be treated for prostate cancer today, but he also expects to be on the floor to support DADT repeal.

By my count, that's 61 votes, and if passage appears assured, I wouldn't be surprised if a few other Republicans jumped on the bandwagon when all is said and done.

But don't be complacent. The Republicans are still capable of great mischief. If your Senator is a Republican, even if they say they support repeal, they STILL need to hear from you to prevent their spine from wavering.

Meanwhile, activist Dan Choi, removed from the Army for being gay, has been hospitalized for a nervous breakdown-- a reminder of the many human costs of this policy.

From a gay soldier:

The silence is the hardest part. I listen intently as my fellow soldiers talk about facing the reality of leaving their loved ones for a year and all the life events that will be missed. I don't talk about my own experience at all, because it's easier to come across as cold and removed than to risk slipping and mentioning that my loved one is of the same gender. For all I know, there are other gay soldiers in my unit, ones who understand what I'm going through. My gay friends in civilian life are supportive, but they don't often understand the military or soldiering. That camouflage is another burden I carry as I prepare to leave.....

]I'm reminded of the moral courage of my partner, who encourages me everyday to continue to put on that uniform; who believes that some things are worthy of our energies; who quietly plods along and prepares for my deployment as I do the same. I know as a soldier, it is the people we leave behind who bear the real brunt of deployment, who hold it all together, who send the care packages and pray for our returns. He'll have to do it on his own though. There are no support groups for the gay partners left back home.

In the meantime, gay soldiers who are still serving in silence will continue to put on our rucksacks and do what our country asks of us –- and wait.

Cartoon from Mike Luckovich

Cindy McCain, Jon Stewart on DADT (twofer)

Is she or isn't she? First she's against it:


Then she's for it. I guess ol' John got a bit cross and she caved.

Jon Stewart lays it out:

DADT: It's almost over, and not in a good way

From the Advocate:

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates ....making an unusual break from his consistent calls for Congress to wait on repeal until the Pentagon delivers its study in December, voiced his support for Congressional action ....

In the meantime, the new head of the Marine Corps said he thought repeal would be risky while U.S. troops were engaged in two wars overseas.

And, craven to their core, the Dems in Congress will yet again toss the LGBT community overboard. The Wall Street Journal reports,

The drive in Congress to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy appears all but lost for the foreseeable future, with action unlikely this year and even less likely once Republicans take charge of the House in January.....Advocates on both sides believed the issue had a chance of coming up in this month's post-election session of Congress. Now that looks unlikely.

Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and John McCain of Arizona, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, are in talks on stripping the proposed repeal and other controversial provisions from a broader defense bill, leaving the repeal with no legislative vehicle to carry it.

Just to top it off John Aravosis reports that one of the candidates for a new Sec'y Defense is Ike Skelton, a Democratic supporter, indeed one of the architects, of DADT.

Close your eyes while the bus rolls on over....if this is fierce advocating, I'd hate to see craven capitulation.

The Don't Ask, Don't tell debacle

The sweeping decision from the federal court re. DADT led this week to the judge issuing a declaration that DADT should no longer be enforced. The Obama Administration has asked for a stay of that finding, pending their appeal of the judge's decision. While a very good case can be made that the constitutionality of laws should not be determined by a single federal judge, we also can't avoid the fact that the Fierce Advocate announced that DADT would be history by the end of the year, but did not expend political capital to help pass the watered-down repeal in the Senate, and has not taken steps to deal with those military personnel who are subverting the process. (They tried that with Harry Truman too, when he integrated the military, but with less success).

But even given the cautious justification for these actions, they show a remarkable tin ear for politics. From The American Prospect (my emphases)

Members of the administration have admitted that gay-rights issues have taken a back seat, and indeed, it seems reasonable enough to ask the gay community to be patient while Obama fixes the economy and health care. But here's the thing with civil rights: Whether you think there are more pressing things to do depends on whether you take civil rights seriously. Civil rights aren't perks that you deal with once you get all the practical stuff in order; they are the practical stuff -- they allow all Americans to participate fully in tackling collective problems.

The Justice Department's ardent defense of DOMA and "don't ask, don't tell" have only added insult to injury.

It is easier for a Federal Employee to buy pet insurance for their dog than get health insurance for their same sex spouse or partner. If I were a federal employee, my cat might have better benefits than my wife. That's some fierce advocating.

The Company we Keep (DADT)

From America Blog:

It is an effective point to ask those supporting the current DADT policy to have them defend being grouped with:

Cuba, China, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Jamaica, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Syria, Turkey, Venezuela, Yemen

Versus being included in the following group:

Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Uruguay

Now seriously, Senator, which group do you want America to be aligned with?

DADT vote: call your senators

Senate votes needed to break filibuster on defense bill and DADT.

Harry Reid has filed for cloture on the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains an amendment for DADT repeal. The vote to break the planned Republican filibuster will be on Tuesday afternoon....For repeal to happen advocates need one more vote to break John McCain's filibuster. All supporters must call their senators now.

KEY SENATORS UNCOMMITTED ON BREAKING THE FILIBUSTER:
--Susan Collins (R-ME)
--Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
--Mark Pryor (D-Ark.);
--Richard Lugar (R-IN);
--Judd Gregg (R-NH);
--Jim Webb (D-VA)
--George Voinovich (R-OH)

Phone numbers and talking points here.