Right now, there are gays, lesbians and bisexuals serving in the United States military. Let that marinate for a little while. Again, there are gays, lesbians and bisexuals serving in the United States military.
It was heartening to hear Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, say that allowing those members to serve openly would be the "right thing to do." It is incredible to me to see how far we've come since 1993. I wonder if opponents to allowing gays to serve openly feel that Admiral Mullen is advocating social engineering, or that he is wants to destroy unit cohesion. Mullen even said in public that he served with gay people, and knew it. I wonder if he worried that he was being checked out in the shower.
Though three generations of men in my family have served in the Marine Corps (father), Air Force (brother) and Army (both grandfathers, three great uncles, four cousins), I am sure that some will dismiss my perspective on this because I haven't served. But, I can tell you that I asked my living relatives their thoughts on this, including my gay Gulf War vet cousin, and not one of them had a problem with integrating gays into the fold. They worked with gay folks, weren't intimidated or threatened by them, and managed to survive their experience.
It was telling to see Sen. John McCain go back on his word to listen to what the top brass had to say on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and act accordingly. McCain showed his truth yesterday. He was angry that the world had changed around him.
And then there was this revealing exchange on "Hardball with Chris Matthews" last night:
The bottom line is that this ban will end. The gays, lesbians and bisexuals currently serving in the military deserve to serve openly. As Aubrey Sarvis said in that clip, it is insulting to everyone in the military to assume that our service members, gay or straight, will not be professionals in their jobs. And it is particularly insulting to suggest that current and future gays, lesbians and bisexuals serving in our military cannot "control themselves" in close quarters with straight people (remember, gays are serving now). If that were the case, then we long would have heard about the problems with those predatory gays violating defenseless straights throughout the military.
Yeah, I missed that string of stories too.
UPDATE: Colin Powell, who helped to create DADT, is now fully behind its repeal. What a difference time can make.
6 comments:
Free, you say--"...it is particularly insulting to suggest that current and future gays, lesbians and bisexuals serving in our military cannot "control themselves" in close quarters with straight people."
True. And it is also insulting to suggest that the straight men and women serving in the military are so bigoted and intolerant that serving with gay people would "destroy their morale" or "damage unit cohesion."
The problem with guys like John McCain is that they assume that the prejudices they hold apply to the young people serving in the military today.
Senator, your attitude is insulting to our military. And your time has past.
Don't know if you saw this one Free. Seems poor John McCain is digging himself deeper and deeper into the hypocrisy hole.
"The reason why I supported the policy to start with is because General Colin Powell, who was then the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the one that strongly recommended we adopt this policy in the Clinton administration. I have not heard General Powell or any of the other military leaders reverse their position,"
- McCain, this monday.
Ooops. Hehe.
WOW! He said that on Monday? LMAO! Perhaps that prompted Powell's statement. And, McCain's lying outright. Gen. Shalikashvili came out against the ban. Hell, Rep. (and former Admiral) Joe Sestak has repeatedly called for the ban to end. And, if I recall correctly, weren't there more than 100 retired top brass folks who called for the repeal of DADT? McCain is lying through his teeth.
This isn't even like the integration of blacks into the armed forces anymore. The majority of Americans at that time damn sure didn't want integration there, but that is not the case now. In poll after poll, across demographics, the majority of Americans of almost all stripes is for repealing the ban, and conservatives (and I don't mean the gay ones here) know it. They can't hear the stories of those gay people currently serving; they aren't paying attention to people like Choi and Fehrenbach who want to stay in their jobs (actually they ignore those folks); they ignore gay veterans. I know a few, and am related to one. They loved their military experiences, even under DADT.
So I will repeat that McCain, as well as the overwhelming majority of the people who want to maintain the ban, but used the military's top brass as a crutch are lying. They are now pissed that the people they hoped are no longer providing cover for their personal prejudices.
Correcting myself here...turns out that McCain's statement about Gen. Powell was made in July of last year in an interview with Anna Marie Cox on Air America.
That doesn't change the fact that he is now apparently contradicting himself.
Ahh. Thanks for the correction. And yes, McCain is completely contradicting himself, and it's embarrassing to witness. I think it's even more shameful that some on the GOP side are trying to accuse Mullen of shilling for Obama. Couldn't the same have been said about Powell shilling against Clinton and for the GOP (Powell's party) back in '93? Or was Powell simply a "reasonable voice" that just happened to echo the voices of the GOP members determined to maintain discrimination? I suppose his reasonableness is now to be questioned since he has changed his mind, and now disagrees with the Hill GOP types.
McCain has a history of shortsightedness when it comes to civil rights and empathy for minorities - he did vote against MLK day. Seems "the Maverick" hasn't changed much in the past 25 years. I'm sure 25 years from now, when this jackass is long dead, it will seem just as inconceivable that he was against lifting the ban.
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