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Do Ask, Don't Tell
LGBT voters came out and contributed en masse to Barack Obama's campaign. A year ago, he promised them action on among other things, repeal of the military's discrimination policy, Don't ask Don't Tell. This May it seemed as if they'd won. To much ballyhoo (on the eve of a war appropriation vote) the White House announced what sounded like repeal.
"Now half the LGBT community thinks Don't Ask Don't Tell is already repealed," Miriam Perez of Feministing told GRITtv.
Except what the President actually announced wasn't repeal. It was a compromise that opened the way for a vote on repeal if a Pentagon working group, the President, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs all approved such a thing.
Now it turns out that 400,000 service members are going to have their say as well.
As the jobless go with nothing and school libraries are shut up tight for lack of cash, we, the taxpayers have, it turns out, paid a research firm some $4.4 million to send an email-survey to 400,000 troops.
Leaked copies include the following questions: "If a wartime situation made it necessary for you to share a room, berth or field tent with someone you believe to be a gay or lesbian service member, what are you likely to do?" (The survey offers options.) "If Don't Ask Don't Tell is repealed and you are assigned to bathroom facilities with open bay showers with a gay or lesbian service member, would you: Take no action? Use shower at different time?" There's also a question asking service members, if a gay or lesbian member moved into military housing with a same-sex partner, would they pick up their family and move out.
There's no question about how troops feel about serving under Don't Ask Don't Tell. And -- no question, this is a first.
No one surveyed the troops when it was time to desegregate. No one surveyed male soldiers about allowing women in. When it came to school desegregation, the Supreme Court didn't survey white kids. In fact it's impossible to imagine such a thing.
About as impossible as imagining that LGBT campaign contributors will be doling out much cash to Democratic candidates this fall.
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7 Comments so far
Show AllWhy are we, on the left, investing so much time and energy on an issue to increase the strength of our already too big and out of control military?
The Peace Movement will never ask or care what you do in your bedroom.
It'd be nice if the few liberal media personalities we have would would promote the Peace Movement instead of militarism.
I hope people will keep in mind that the predominance in lesbian/gay politics of "don't ask, don't tell" represents a seismic change that has, I think, alienated quite a few of the older generation of activists, like me, and, I'd guess, many younger ones as well. I can't imagine that there is not a sizeable number of young anti-war and anti-military queers with no place to go in what there is of modern-day activism. So much the worse for queer politics.
I became a gay liberationist over 40 years ago after spending four years in the army, including enough combat to convince me I didn't want any more of it. To hell with the military.
What about Do ask and DO tell?
"We've got a kinder, gentler machine gun hand." - Neil Young
Quite frankly if any of this keeps Gays out of the military, its fine with me. The less murderers and violent humans we have over there, the better.
Be Gay in the USA. Stay home.
Why not make the question moot by just saying no sex period while on active duty? Anyone involved in any sexual activity of any kind, including but not limited to that with sheep, gets sent home and court marshalled. Two top Canadian generals and their squeezes have been hauled back from Afghanistan and Haiti respectively to face charges.