On gays in the military - two columnists, two arguments ... and more

by: teacherken

Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 07:15:39 AM EST

From conservative Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post, there is no right to serve in the military.  The real issue is military effectiveness.  DADT is hurting the effectiveness of the military.  Besides, her former Marine brother, who used to strongly oppose gays serving openly, now says leave it to the troops.  But remember, no one has a right to serve.

And from me?  I'm not a columnist.  Leaders should lead.  DADT was wrong when Clinton was President, it is wrong now.  And politically, most young people want to know what all the fuss about gays is about.

Schools should teach students about gay equality

by: teacherken

Fri Jan 29, 2010 at 10:43:23 AM EST

Imagine a political leader saying that.  In fact, imagine a conservative political leader saying that.  Imagine him saying:  

We do need good sex and relationship education. That education should teach people about equality and the sort of country we are - that we treat people the same whether they are straight or gay, or black or white or a man or a woman. It is important that ethos is embedded in our schooling.

You don't have to imagine.  It happened.  In Britain.  The words are from David Cameron, Conservative Party Leader, and the main probably possibly poised to become the next Prime Minister of the UK.  You can read about it in this piece in The Guardian.

Once upon a time conservatives in America looked at what the Conservative party in Britain did for their model of what to do, e.g. Maggie Thatcher on privatization.  Perhaps we can remind them of that as we suggest they read this article?

(PICS) The Equality March: As Missed by the MSM

by: Rusty5329

Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 16:36:53 PM EDT

Over the weekend, you probably heard about tens of thousands of people standing up for LGBT rights at the Equality March in Washington, DC. It got some decent coverage, mostly on C-SPAN, but for the most part, the MSM really missed the scene. They missed the personal stories attached to this event. Our own Laura Gilbert was there to speak with the protesters.

A cost of Don't Ask, Don't Tell - one sailor's experience

by: teacherken

Sun Oct 11, 2009 at 09:25:20 AM EDT

Shop talk in the unit revolved around sex, either the prostitute-filled parties of days past or the escapades my comrades looked forward to. They interpreted my silence and total lack of interest as an admission of homosexuality. My higher-ups seemed to think that gave them the right to bind me to chairs, ridicule me, hose me down and lock me in a feces-filled dog kennel.

I can't say for certain when the abuse started or when it stopped. Now, several years removed from those days in Bahrain, it blends together in my mind as a 28-month nightmare.

Those two paragraphs are from a remarkable op ed in today's Washington Post, I Didn't Tell. It Didn't Matter.  The subtitle of this piece by Joseph Rocha is "Trying to serve his country, a young man faced bigotry and abuse".   Read it and you will not need to continue below the fold.

Essay in military journal urges end to policy on gays

by: teacherken

Thu Oct 01, 2009 at 06:36:47 AM EDT

It's not an official Pentagon endorsement, and Joint Forces Quarterly isn't exactly Time or Newsweek. But a military journal article written by an Air Force colonel advocating the repeal of the so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law is notable nonetheless.

That is the opening paragraph of an article in the Virginian-Pilot, a major newspaper in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, an area that includes the world's largest Naval Base, at Norfolk.   The link to the article will provide its own link to a PDF of essay, which originally appeared in in the October issue of Joint Force Quarterly.  The author, Col. Om Prakash, now serves on the staff of Sec. Gates, and, as the news piece notes, his article "won the 2009 Secretary of Defense National Security Essay competition" which also merits mention.

Let me touch on a couple of key points, both of the article, and of the 7 page essay.

Obama needs just a bit of Truman's courage

by: teacherken

Sun Jun 28, 2009 at 01:54:11 AM EDT

When will Barack Obama tap his inner Truman and take the initiative to end the ignominious ban on gays serving openly in the military?

Actually, he needs to exhibit only a fraction of Harry Truman's political courage. When FDR's successor announced in 1948 that he intended to racially integrate the armed forces, Americans recoiled in horror. Gallup reported that only 13 percent of the people endorsed the notion of blacks and whites serving together. Yet Truman signed the executive order anyway; as he liked to say, "I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he'd taken a poll in Egypt."

So begin Dick Polman, the National Political Columnist for the Philadelphia InquirerM in his column today, whose full title reads The American Debate: Obama needs just a bit of Truman's courage.  I was planning to go to bed until I read the column.  I decided I needed to write about it immediately.