2009 Pulitzer Prize Winner Nails It
Obama sensibly advocates the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." He should press the case by publicly reminding opponents of letting gays serve openly in the military that their arguments -- it would hurt morale, damage cohesion and readiness, discourage reenlistment -- are often the same, almost word for word, as the arguments made 60 years ago against racial integration in the armed forces. It was bigotry then, and it's bigotry now.
Click here to read Eugene Robinson's recent op-ed.
05-11-09 By Kevin Nix, SLDN Communications Director |
3 Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com on May 12, 2009 at 08.59 am
Bravo to Mr. Robinson who is not just a Pulitzer Prize winner, but an African-American who knows bigotry when he sees it.
“The only reasons they have left are prejudice and discrimination.” - Leonard Matlovich, 1975.
That’s right. He said that THIRTY-FOUR YEARS AGO!
The Palm Center’s Nathaniel Frank reports in the recent “Unfriendly Fire” that the late Charles Moskos, an arrogant, sexually insecure pseudo intellectual who conspired with his old friend, cracker fascist Sam Nunn, to fashion and parade the “unit cohesion” argument in Nunn’s 1993 televised dog and pony show [in which Nunn would not allow Barry Goldwater to testify because the conservative icon was against the ban], said in an interview seven years later, “F—k unit cohesion. I don’t care about that.”
He added that what drove him most, obsessed him, was the other argument he’d used in the Senate hearings: straight discomfort around gays was justification enough for discriminating against us.
In other words, straights have a right to deny equal treatment to gays simply because of their homophobia…just like military racial segregation, as Robinson indicates, was primarily justified by the racism of white soldiers six decades ago.
Karen Gautney in Alexandria, VA on May 11, 2009 at 03.37 pm
DADT is not like same sex marriage. The majority of Americans favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve in the military, whereas we don’t yet have a majority on marriage equality. Religion, often used in objection to same sex marriage, is rarely raised when talking about DADT. So what are we waiting for? Obama can establish this as a priority, urge congress to act, and it’ll be a done deal by the end of this year. Clinton let us down, and now Obama is doing the same thing.
Do it, and do it now. Do it while our military is in need, and while we have a Democratic congress. Obama, if you mess up this opportunity, this relatively easy way to further the rights of LGBT Americans, it could be years before the situation is so perfect again.
Integrating the military based on sexual orientation will be MUCH faster and easier than racial integration. Heck, it’s already integrated, we just need to give people the okay to be honest and, there…it’s done. It will be a non-issue, just as it has been in the other countries with freedom of service.
Let’s join SLDN in pushing the president to push congress. There will never be a better time. Let’s get it done. Now.
equalnotspecial in Sonoma, Ca on May 11, 2009 at 03.36 pm
DADT teaches prejudice. We will never reach full equality as long as our government continues to teach discrimination. Write, call, or whatever you do, to Obama and your representatives. Repeal is a must, and the sooner the better. If you haven’t made your voice heard to the people in charge, you have no right to complain about lack of performance.