Celebrating end of all DADT!

I'm just back from a week's vacation...but I know you join me in celebrating the end of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." I can't wait to watch the President sign its repeal tomorrow.

This significant vote in both the House and the Senate, by a majority of Congresspersons, is the beginning of the end of government supported homophobia and discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.

Call me an optimist, but I believe that the repeal of DOMA and the passage of a trans inclusive ENDA can't be far behind.

The arc of the universe DOES bend towards justice.

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is Immoral -- Not Homosexuality

The Washington Post On Faith Blog asked this week, "What beliefs support the ban on gays in the military?"

I was tempted to just write a three word column: Ignorance. Bigotry. Homophobia.

Instead, I wrote the following column:

http://onfaith.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/debra_w_haffner/2010/11/its_dont_ask_dont_tell_thats_immoral_-_not_homosexuality.html

I'd love for you to leave your comment there.

I long for the day when this question will seem as out dated and outrageous as asking "what beliefs support the ban on women" or "what beliefs support the ban on blacks and whites serving together" do now.

Ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who has been serving in the military for the past ten years. She told me she hasn't been able to sleep since last night's vote by the House of Representatives to eliminate Don't Ask Don't Tell. The vote was 234 to 194 to end this discriminatory policy that has caused so many service people to live in the closet and so many to have been dismissed from the military.

My friend, who is a happily out lesbian in her personal life, has lived "don't tell" for her entire military career. That's meant having to never answer questions about whether she's married or partnered, never having a picture of her partner on her desk or being able to bring her to a social event, and worrying during dangerous overseas assignments about how her partner would learn if something happened to her. It's meant never sharing with her work colleagues about her outside life and trying to "pass" as heterosexual.

I've admired her commitment to her military career but have always wondered about the cost to her well being to living such a bifurcated life.

There's still a vote in the Senate to come, but the Senate Armed Services Committee also voted yesterday to repeal DADT as it is known. Some military chaplains have expressed their dismay that they won't know how to minister to gay service people. Some have wondered how they will be able to handle sleeping quarters for gay and straight men and women. The quick answer is, "you already do." There is no reason to believe that the military doesn't already reflect the general population figures that at least 4% of people are gay or lesbian.

The larger answer though is that discrimination doesn't belong in the military. The military was able to integrate people of color. They have slowly been figuring out how to integrate women. And they will be able to do so for gay, lesbian, and bisexual military as well.

The decision to publicly affirm one's sexual orientation -- whether straight, gay, lesbian, or bisexual -- should be up to the individual, not public policy. It's time -- it's past time -- for the Congress and the military to reverse policies of exclusion for my friend -- and all the other GLB servicepeople proudly serving their country.

Is It The Beginning of the End of DADT?

The Boston Globe reports that a top military journal is about to publish a research article that concludes that there is no justification for the "don't ask, don't tell"(DADT) policy. Read the article here.

The writer reportedly concludes that the policy is hurting the military when it must dismiss qualified personnel and hurts the people who remain closeted in order to serve.

It's about time.

I have gay and lesbian friends in the military who have had to go to extraordinary lengths to hide their orientation in order to serve. I don't feel at liberty to share their stories, except to say that I have asked out loud why they haven't just quit, rather than deny their personal lives.

The President had discussed the injustice of the DADT policy during the campaign, but the hope that he might lift it by executive order was dashed. This article should help provide backbone to the military, Congress, and the White House to get rid of this sad legacy signed by Bill Clinton.

Let's pray that the end of DADT is close.

Supreme Court on Gays in the Military: Congress, It's Up to You

From the Center for American Progress this morning:

CIVIL RIGHTS -- SUPREME COURT DENIES CHALLENGE TO 'DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL': The Supreme Court yesterday refused to hear a challenge to an 1st Circuit appellate court decision on the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy, which had found that courts must defer to Congress on federal statutes regarding military affairs. The case was filed by "James E. Pietrangelo II, a former Army captain who was discharged from the military for being gay." But now, the Supreme Court's move "effectively leave[s] it to" Congress and the Obama administration "to resolve the long-standing controversial issue." Indeed, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), co-sponsor of legislation to overturn DADT, said on MSNBC last night that "one way or another [a change] is going to come." The president and Congress have been slow to act on the repeal, even as pressure to reverse the ban is gaining momentum. A new poll shows that nearly 70 percent of Americans support openly gay men and women being allowed to serve in the U.S. military. But the poll also shows a 12-point increase in the percentage of conservatives who said they oppose the policy, from 46 percent in November 2004 to 58 percent now. Obama's new nominee for Secretary of the Army, James McHugh, has also hinted that he supports a repeal of the ban.

It's time, it's past time, for the President and the Congress to act and overturn this unjust legacy from the Clinton Administration. Surely we all know that sexual orientation says nothing about fitness to serve. (And if it did, I'm guessing that overall the military has many more discipline problems with heterosexual soldiers than it does gay ones.) Mr. President, it's time for you to speak up about this.

The Beginning of the End of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

She certainly doesn't look like someone who would be bad for morale.

She's Air Force Reservist Major Margaret Witt from Spokane, Washington, and yesterday that 9th U.S. Circut Court of Appeals reinstated her, saying that the military cannot automatically discharge people because they are gay. Although they did not rule directly on the "don't ask, don't tell policy", their decision surely is the beginning of its end.

It's time to end discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity -- in all types of employment, in housing, in relationship and family recognition. As a minister, I affirm that sexual diversity is part of God's blessing. Yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court said it shouldn't be a barrier to service.

Bless them.