Blog for Democracy

A Snail’s Pace

Despite pressure from Congress and the White House, the Department of Defense has been banking on an internal review to determine whether or not it will endorse an end to the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.  Despite the obvious and unnecessary red tape at play here, the survey’s feedback has unfortunately been dismal:

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department says that only about a quarter of the troops sent a survey on gays in the military have responded.

Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said Thursday that close to 103,000 service members have completed the survey, which asks questions like how they would react if assigned to a room with a gay person.

The Defense Department had delivered 400,000 surveys to troops as part of its study on how it could lift the ban without hurting morale. The deadline to respond is Sunday.

Which begs the question, does it really matter?  As if the fact that homosexuals in law enforcement, public and private college dormitories, high school and collegiate athletics, and the armed forces of at least 22 of our allies haven’t done enough to curtail whatever opposition opponents have thrown out there as excuses for why they must hide their sexuality in shame and secrecy.  In the meantime, those on the wrong side of history will continue to stonewall and this will only give them another opportunity to do so.  End the policy.  It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve done away with inequity through bold action on the part of our leaders.  In 2010, we shouldn’t expect anything less.

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4 responses to “A Snail’s Pace”

  1. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    More on the ads ‘discovered’ by the Huff Post & of periodic amusement noted by M. Musto of the Village Voice. And as noted by Bruce Joffe, it’s yes as old as recorded advertising in print, almost:
    http://www.amazon.com/Hint-Homosexuality-Bruce-H-Joffe/dp/1425764665

    JMP

  2. JMPrince Avatar
    JMPrince

    Yes. The Rethugs Live & Breath for Bigotry. It’s what they do & who they are, fundamentally, now. Dems? They generally favor the proposition & genuinely want to do something about it. On one side is the ease of fomenting ancient hatred & animus. On the other side the necessity of building coalitions to actually try to get something done, to achieve some progress. One side will always be slower than the other. One side despite Being far uglier, can act much more quickly to mobilize the hate on all media channels. Our side will always look & seem ‘uglier’ & more ‘disorganized’ on the same media channels for being more slow to try & accomplish what good that might be accomplished in the face of the fomented rage. But we do not now & have rarely ‘legislated from or with rage’. The Rethugs? It’s all they do now.

    One party has become the party of, by & for genuine Radicals who seek to destroy our very way of life. And despite their vigorous denials of same, the clear evidence of such carnage lies all around us. The other (Dem) party has been saddled with the inheritance of the ‘party of governance’, expected to produce real rational solutions to people’s problems. So be it.

    And again despite the vigorous & frequent claims of such ‘unnatural’ & ‘non traditional’ states of this or that, it all seems so achingly familiar somehow to anyone with any sense of history:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/13/the-most-homoerotic-vinta_n_663796.html

    And still has always been the topic of muscular discussion since like forever too:
    huffingtonpost.com/william-k-black/sport-the-gay-antidote_b_683546.html
    JMP

  3. Drew Avatar
    Drew

    I hope Reid isn’t waiting for the election. If he is, then that bill will never pass, what with the Republican demand that Congressional Democrats do nothing during the lame-duck session and the Congressional Democrats’ willingness to do anything to avoid Republican criticism. Pathetic.

    Honestly, is it too much to ask for the Democrats to be half as willing to defend their values are Republicans are to defend, say, their anti-Muslim bigotry?

  4. Juliana Avatar
    Juliana

    Jason, thank you for this post. It’s very frustrating to have an ally in the White House who promised this would be repealed and it’s still ongoing.

    That survey was poorly written and many of the LBGT advocates were against anyone filling it out, which might account for the poor response.

    I remain somewhat optimistic the Congressional allies are pushing harder than the President is and they will whip up the votes before he can. Rep. Patrick Murphy spoke to the National Stonewall Convention two weeks ago and gave us every reason to hope this is the case. The Senate, well that’s a horse of a different color. There is great pressure on Sen. Reid to move the ball forward, but I suppose he’s waiting for the election first.

    Meanwhile today, news is that most of the firings are lesbians, although as is somewhat typical; they are not the face of the repeal protests. http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/dont-ask-dont-tell-discharges-hit-lesbians-hardest/19595073

    My personal frustration about all of this, ENDA the fully inclusive employment non discrimination act has completely stalled. We’ve heard that LBGT activists are being told by hill “allies” to choose between the two “gay” bills for this fall session.

    As if we couldn’t have both.

    Nice.

    I’m still hoping for change.

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