Articles tagged with: Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT)
Repeal DADT: Veterans Lobby Day & Stories from the Frontlines
Veterans from across the nation will meet with members of Congress to demand repeal of the military gay ban on “Veterans Lobby Day on Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” May 10-11. Alaskans Together for Equality has joined the coalition and is looking for LGBT service members and veterans in Alaska.
Nearly 14,000 Americans have been abruptly fired from the U.S. military because of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell – including more than 800 mission critical specialists, and Jene Newsome, an Alaskan stationed in South Dakota.
Alaskans Together is looking for other LGBT service members and veterans in Alaska willing to talk to the media. If you are able to join this effort, please Email Tim Stallard.
The national Veterans Lobby Day on DADT will bring hundreds of gay and lesbian veterans and their straight veteran allies to Washington with the support of a pro-repeal and pro-military coalition. They will demand to have the DADT repeal attached to the Defense Authorization bill. Supporters back home are encouraged to call their members of Congress on Veterans Lobby Day.
The video for Veterans Lobby Day on DADT:
Both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are expected to markup the Defense Authorization bill in May. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) writes:
“We are urging the President to include repeal in the Administration’s defense budget recommendations, but also to voice his support as we work to muster the 15 critical votes needed on the Senate Armed Services Committee to include repeal. The Defense Authorization bill represents the best legislative vehicle to bring repeal to the president’s desk. It also was the same vehicle used to pass DADT in 1993. By working together, we can help build momentum to get the votes!”
Meanwhile, SLDN is continuing to post a letter each weekday from people directly effected by this discriminatory law in “Stories from the Frontlines: Letters to President Barack Obama.” The military personnel include men and women from the Navy, Air Force, Army, Marines, and a Military Chaplain. This touching letter is from the Chaplain:
Dear Mr. President,
As an active-duty military chaplain who just returned from a 15-month deployment in Iraq, this is my appeal for justice:
Over the years some of us have buried our closest friends — officers and enlisted, African American, Latinos, Native Americans, Asians, Whites, rich, poor, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims and Jews. They had the courage to make the supreme sacrifice in order for us to reap the bounties of freedom. We owe them a debt of gratitude which can never be repaid.
What is remarkable about these Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Coastguardsmen is they understood the personal risk when they answered the highest calling of our nation. What could be a nobler act then to give one’s life to one’s country, knowing that in their lives many freedoms would be denied them?
And when their story is told a significant piece of their life would be missing.
As they sleep under the crosses, the stars of David and the crescents there is no bigotry. There is no prejudice. There is no hatred. And within the sacred confines of their resting place there is no law of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” There is only purest democracy.
When the final cross has been placed in the last cemetery, will it only be then that we as a nation acknowledge our gay brothers and sisters who took the risks of life and truth to answer their nation’s highest calling? How many of these brave men and women lie in military graves and still hide in death?
They are among the unknown soldiers.
There are only a few who know the truth of those who lie in these graves. There are only a few who know the suffering and sorrow of those who mourn them in silence and fear. The nation remains silent and owes no allegiance to who they truly were nor does it honor their loved ones. What does that say of our sacred values?
If one gay person was killed in defense of America, issues such as the destruction of unit morale or the fear of people not wanting to join the military devalue their sacrifice. This is not about appeasing the uncomfortable feelings of a minority; this is a universal and transcendent matter of justice. America was built on the common Jewish and Christian heritage of justice when the Bible commands: “Justice, justice you shall pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20).
It is easy for those who do not live in fear of being ‘outed’ to say: ‘We must wait and examine this law further.’ But when you have to watch what you say, where you go, and who you talk to, this erodes the human person. When you live in fear that the wrong pronoun slips through your lips, or a co-worker see you in public with your life long partner and you respond ‘this is just a friend’, this degrades your human self worth.
Gays and lesbians wait not for justice, for them justice is denied, but they wait for the ‘knock on the door.’ They are haunted daily waiting ‘to be found out.’
We went to foreign lands to wage war to liberate people so they would not have to live in the fear of waiting. But citizens of our own land who served nobly, who died to secure freedoms which they would never profit from, must live in fear waiting for justice.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is an unjust law. It degrades the human soul because it forces those who willingly serve to live in shameful humiliation because of deceit and fear. It undermines the very principles and values of what it means to be an American. Living the façade of a life goes against the Core Values of every Armed Service. How much longer is justice going to be denied? There comes a time when despair and fear must end.
Mr. President, we depend on your sense of justice and fairness to help end this gross injustice so we, as a nation, do not have to wait for the final marker to be placed in the last cemetery.
We ask you to lead the way in repealing this unjust law and replace it with a policy of non-discrimination that advances open and honest service. A law that is consistent with true American values and honors the sacrifices of so many who have served – and died — in silence.
With deepest respect,
A military chaplain
(The writer is currently serving and unable to identify himself publicly.)
Read all of the letters HERE, and contact Alaskans Together to support the local effort.
Don Young on DADT: Don’t trust the Generals
Asked whether he would support the repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. Young replied:Probably not. I think the system has worked. I think we have to recognize that. I am not at ease saying that this would be a plus for the armed services. And I think we ought to stop going to the heads of the so-called military, and the politicians and ask the troops and see how it comes out. That would tell you a lot more. We have a tendency to think that we know more than the common folk. And Obama and Nancy Pelosi is an exaple of that in the health bill.[Felling] So you think that the Secretary of Defense, and the Generals don’t have the best sense…I actually don’t think that they… They’re like the President. They don’t have any contact with their troops. The troops in the field, the guy that’s got mud on his boots, and pulling that M-16 trigger, he’s got armor on his chest at 110 degrees, you ought to ask him.
which included not only Marines, but members of the Army and the Air Force, both male and female service members explained their indifference to the issue: They’d already served with gays and lesbians, they accepted that some kind of change was imminent, and, they said, the nation was too engulfed in two wars for a prolonged debate about it.
- 73 percent of military personnel are comfortable with lesbians and gays (Zogby International, 2006).
- The younger generations, those who fight America’s 21st century wars, largely don’t care about whether someone is gay or not, and they do not link job performance with sexual orientation.
- One in four U.S. troops who served in Afghanistan or Iraq knows a member of their unit who is gay (Zogby, 2006).
In addition, the public overwhelmingly supports lifting the ban:
- Majorities of weekly churchgoers (60 percent), conservatives (58 percent), and Republicans (58 percent) now favor repeal (Gallup, 2009).
- Seventy-five percent of Americans support gays serving openly, up from 44 percent in 1993 (ABC News/Washington Post, 2008).
Representative Don Young: 202-225-5765
Ugly Betty, Equality Mixer, ATE update
Words matter on DADT polls, but labels keep us apart
In the poll, 59 percent say they now support allowing “homosexuals” to serve in the U.S. military, including 34 percent who say they strongly favor that. Ten percent say they somewhat oppose it and 19 percent say they strongly oppose it.But the numbers differ when the question is changed to whether Americans support “gay men and lesbians” serving in the military. When the question is asked that way, 70 percent of Americans say they support gay men and lesbians serving in the military, including 19 percent who say they somewhat favor it. Seven percent somewhat oppose it, and 12 percent strongly oppose it.
Why must we care what word we use to describe ourselves in this world. Truly, no word can describe a person, or do much to resolve one person’s prejudice against another. The need to provide equal protection was conceived to protect people from the damage inflicted by a word or a combination of words. Because of equal protection under the law, I am not allowed to extend or deny to my fellow citizen access to basic necessities such as food, shelter or income because I may believe that a person’s character and worth can be defined by the color of their skin, their ethnic heritage or their ability to physically function at my level.We cut ourselves off from so very much in this world, from potential allies, acquaintances and friends, when we allow ourselves to place people in boxes defined by words, and bullet phrases based on physical characteristics, or even outward mannerisms. We certainly deprive ourselves when we rely on the comments of others to determine with whom we may be compatible. Many amazing, spiritually mature and gifted leaders have throughout human history declared that to understand someone, one must take the time to know that person as an individual. By no other means can one ascertain whether another human being be friend or foe.I wrote this comment, and I will end the article with it. May we all step out of our comfort zones in order that we find greater comfort in the companionship of others who we may not at first trust or understand. It works. I speak from experience. Some of the greatest lessons taught to me have been from those whom at first I did not trust:What I long for more than anything else is to have a person simply ask me about my life – not my lifestyle, my agenda, or attempt to define my label. I am, above all else, a human being. I do not wear my hair in a particular style, adorn my feet with a select brand of comfortable shoes or even regularly attend the most public of rallies or parades for the LGBT community. My parents love my partner, and her parents love me. We have the support of our family. We could not exist as a couple without that support (get back in there and work it out, then come talk to us later). I do not hide my life, but then neither do I try and define it with outward props or affectations. Should a stranger need to understand me better, I can offer no one word or combination thereof to dispel their discomfort. All I can do is to offer them a cup of coffee, a plate of food, and a moment of my time, and perhaps, should both our hearts be open and free from preconceived resentment, we might become better acquainted and less fearful of one another. This method alone has helped ease my way in life, and open doors that might otherwise have remained closed to me, and the love of my life. I thank all those neighbors, relatives, states, persons and more who took the time to get to know us and accept us with love and understanding.
Rev. Bess on DADT and the business of marriage
Palin on DADT Repeal: Unnecessary
“I don’t think so right now,” she said. “I’m surprised that the president spent time on that in his State of the Union speech when he only spent about 9% of his time in the State of the Union on national security issues. And I say that because there are other things to be worried about right now with the military. I think that kind of on the back burner is sufficient for now. To put so much time, and effort, and politics into it? Unnecessary.”
Watch the video clip here:
Sara’s News Roundup 1/31/10
2) Colin Higgins Foundation Seeks Nominations for Youth Courage Awards
3) For Transgender People, Name Is a Message
4) Indian Prince To Wed Partner in Nepal, Raises Gay Tourism Hopes
5) Moscow Mayor Bans ‘Satanic’ Gay Parade
6) Project Examines Black / LGBT Struggles
7) Can The Church Repeal Its Own DADT Policies?
8) Italy builds first transgender prison
9) To tell or not to tell, that is the question
10) Utah Lawmakers Won’t Take Up a Ban on Discrimination Against Gays
11) The Third Mom
Pres. Obama promises to end DADT, support ENDA, on eve of National Equality March
President Obama addressed gay rights on the night before the National Equality March, describing the fight for gay equality in light of the history of rights movements, and pledging his support on a list of issues where he sees the opportunity for progress.
- recognized the commitment of Judy Shepard and the imminent passage of the Hate Crimes Act in Congress, saying, “This bill is set to pass and I will sign it into law.”
- supports an inclusive ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
- will defend his appointees when they are attacked for their sexual orientation.
- wants to renew the Ryan White Act for AIDS funding, and repeal the HIV status ban on entering the US.
- will repeal DADT: “I will end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, that’s my commitment to you.”
- called on Congress to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act and to pass the Domestic Partners Benefits and Obligations Act.
- honored the founders of PFLAG and the advocacy of parents for their GLBT children.
Sara’s News Round-Up 10/11/09
Discharged Alaskan Fights DADT
by E. Ross
David Hall, UAA student and decorated Elmendorf NCO, was accepted into the Air Force ROTC and discharged a year later because of his relationship with a man he met at UAA. Channel KTVA11 recently posted his story:
