Is the LGBT community too splintered? Is it too complacent? Does it accept small victories, like the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” instead of demanding the whole enchilada?
Leading voices in the LGBT wilderness are crying loudly for a whole new approach toward achieving full equality on a global scale.
Bryan Fischer's departure from Idaho in the summer of 2009 was cause for celebration among progressives and conservatives alike throughout our small red state. After 29 years of bigotry, hate and racism, Fischer was finally gone!
Out-of-state when Fischer made the announcement he would be leaving Idaho, I was tending to my seriously ill 74-year-old mother. Sitting by her bedside in a California hospital room, exhausted, grateful and relieved Mom had just made it through surgery, I got the call.
A leading advocacy group that provides legal assistance to LGBT members of the armed forces has renewed a call for President Barack Obama to issue an executive order banning discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the military.
"The purpose of the executive order is to create a new mechanism that gay and lesbian service members can use when they feel they have a legitimate complaint about harassment or discrimination," said Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
Earlier this month, the Dallas Voice newspaper reported on the demise of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military.
The Voice, a gay publication in the Lone Star State, included some comments from gay military personnel.
And one of them was at Beale Air Force Base.
He was identified as "Jeffrey S., an airman first class based at Beale Air Force Base in Northern California," the newspaper reported.
Posted by Chris Geidner on February 11, 2011 6:35 PM | Permalink
Metro Weekly caught up with Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (R) at CPAC to talk about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal and moving forward.
Asked about the repeal, Hatch reiterated his opposition, noting that the only reason he wasn't in the Senate on Dec. 18 , 2010, to vote against repeal was that he was attending his grandson's graduation.
Tagged with: Alexander Malcolm Nicholson Don't Ask Don't Tell Human Rights Campaign James F. Amos Pentagon Repeal Servicemembers United United States Department of Defense
Even though General James F. Amos seems more than happy to delegate almost all the work and responsibility of implementing the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to his small unit commanders, the Pentagon is taking a far more active approach to the repeal, which will take months. The repeal will occur in three stages with the military chaplains, lawyers and civilian public affairs officers receiving training first, and then commanding officers and then rank and file troops. Most notably, the plan does not require that all service members be trained and educated about the repeal and integration before final repeal is certified.
WASHINGTON (BP)--Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land has joined other conservative leaders in calling for a congressional effort to protect the U.S. military as repeal of the ban on open homosexuality in the Armed Forces nears implementation.
President Obama signed into law in December legislation repealing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell law. Final revocation of the policy, however, will not take effect until Obama, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen certify the reversal will not harm the military. That seems to be a given, since all three supported the bill. Even then, a 60-day waiting period is required until the new policy becomes effective.
Mike Almy only came out to his parents after he became a leading activist pushing repeal of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy. ''I always feared my mom's reaction," he says. "I didn't want to see her cry or be depressed." In fact, his mother did almost cry when she heard him on NPR. ''She was so proud of me for doing the interview and for the work I've done on repeal,'' he says. ''[And both his parents, even his retired Air Force colonel father] wished I had told them sooner, wished they had been there for me.''
Are we done with the relentless political coverage of the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords? I mean, yes, it’s a tragic story, and I feel for the families of those lost, but the media circus that followed was absolutely ridiculous. In the end, the left fooled no one. From their typical Sarah Palin blame-game to their Congressional outbursts and weirdly inappropriate Obama lovefest during a televised national memorial, it turns out it was a crazed, lunatic, a.k.a. “left-wing pothead” who wielded the gun , nothing more, nothing less.
The Pentagon on Friday, January 28 said training to prepare for implementation of the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" could begin as early as this month.
But reaction from LGBT groups was mixed, and a 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Friday rejected a motion from the Department of Justice to halt proceedings on a legal challenge to the ban pending in that court.
