Sullivan’s Home Run
President Obama has been in office approaching three months. The man has a full plate, but a president's plate is never too full to tackle, in a timely fashion, major mistakes of the past. And, fortunately for him, correcting the wretched "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law from the 1990s will actually help the Commander-in-Chief wage both wars, if only a little bit. Putting an end to the firing of highly qualified service members who are gay and lesbian will only strengthen our military force in, for instance, the Afghanistan-Pakistan region. This is about numbers. Lift the ban=more men and women (an estimated 4,000) who want to serve (and are qualified to do so).
Let's remember: "[LGBT] service members are serving their country with decency, professionalism and honor," writes Andrew Sullivan. "The way they are still treated is a disgrace, and the insult to their service is a deep and dreadful one." Sullivan continues. "On the matter of civil rights in his own time, alas, the first black president has so far demonstrated the courage of a Clinton." In other words, not yet enough courage.
We don't want to see any more comparisons of Barack Obama to Bill Clinton on the matter of civil rights. We urge the president to get "don't ask, don't tell" behind him, this year.
04-02-09 By Kevin Nix, SLDN Communications Director |
1 Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.Martina Sternberg in Indiana on April 02, 2009 at 07.41 pm
I am a heterosexual person who served over 20 years in the military. I served with heterosexual and GLBT comrades. I would trust my life to both, both serve honorable with integrity and honor. My father, 3 brothers, 5 nephews and my daughter either served or are serving and all feel the same. I voted for Obama much because of his stand on ending the DADT policy. I didn’t wait to vote, I went to the polls and did my part. It is now his turn to do his part - what he promised he would do. I agree wholeheartedly with Sullivan. GLBT folks have served for many years and are serving now so let them serve openly! Don’t we fight for others to have freedom? Give our own service members the same freedoms they fight for other to have. Give them the freedom to serve openly!!!! We also have a huge problem in the military with sexual harassment among women. When Canada allowed gay military members to serve openly, one of the results was a 40%+ decrease in sexual harassment among women military members. Let’s end DADT and sexual harassment in the military will dimish as well.