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Eric Johnston, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network
SUMMARY: The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday in favor of a bill supporting military recruitment on college campuses, prompting gay rights groups to vow to fight it in the Senate.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday in favor of a bill supporting military recruitment on college campuses, prompting gay rights groups to vow to fight the bill when it moves to the Senate.
The House approved The ROTC and Military Recruiter Equal Access to Campus Act of 2004 (H.R. 3966) by a 343-81 vote. The bill, introduced by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., would strengthen the ability of military recruiters to violate university nondiscrimination policies and would provide stiffer penalties for institutions that deny recruiters access to campuses.
"Unfortunately, the Department of Defense (news - web sites) has documented isolated incidents where certain colleges and universities have blocked military recruiters from campus," said Marshall Macomber, a spokesman for Rogers. "This simply must not continue," he told the Syracuse University Daily Orange newspaper.
Many colleges that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation say the military's "don't ask, don't tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual service members clearly violates the colleges' codes.
"Schools should never be forced to allow discrimination," said Cheryl Jacques, president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender political organization.
Jacques went on to say the law was also unnecessary, because an existing law known as the Solomon Amendment already requires universities to give the military the ability to recruit and interview students without signing a sexual orientation-inclusive nondiscrimination policy. Colleges that deny the military access risk losing all federal funding for their schools.
Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, sharply criticized the bill during Tuesday's debate on the House floor.
"This bill is designed to force universities to violate their own policies against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and to undermine pending lawsuits that challenge the so-called Solomon Amendment," said Meehan.
The Solomon Amendment was already facing a challenge in federal court. In January, a coalition of law schools, professors and legal organizations asked the 3rd Circuit Court of
Appeals to overturn the Solomon Amendment, saying the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy is incompatible with university non-discrimination policies.
The Student/Faculty Alliance for Military Equality at Yale University is one of the plaintiffs in that case. Fadi Hanna, a spokesman for the group, told the Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network the House's latest action is "a bad sign because strengthening the [Solomon] amendment makes the point that [members of Congress] think discrimination is OK."
It is unclear when the bill might surface in the Senate, but HRC spokesman Mark Shields told the Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network that his group would be ready.
"We're going to go to the Senate now and work with our allies there in the hopes of defeating it," he said.
"Always forgive your enemies...nothing annoys them quite so much." Oscar Wilde
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saben
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On fire! |
Registered: May 2003
Messages: 1537
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Discrimination shouldn't be criminalised, that is verging on facism. You can't force people to think a certain way, I guess behaviour is a different matter, but even so, I think if people are just forced to not discriminate then it becomes they will come to resent it, rather than if they are educated and choose not to discriminate.
I don't agree with discrimination, but I value free choice and independant thought more than that.
Look at Singapore- I don't think people should be homeless but in Singapore it is a illegal, people should have the ability to choose if they want to be homeless and not be sent to gaol if they choose to!
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
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BUT...
On a fundamental level the issue of discrimination in alive and well in the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is implimented as it is today. Dishonorable discharge from the military for violations of "don't ask, don't tell" have increased by more than 500% (I will supply actual figures or pecentages if anyone is interested). Also, many that have been discharged to date have cases that did not really comply with the "don't ask" portion of the law. So we do need to talk about the fundamental conflict of this 'compromise' with a non-discrimination policy by a public college.
It seems to me this issue needs to be resolved first, and the way that happens in the U.S.A. is that someone must break that law and challenge it's validity. I think that is our next step.
Do I think it's wrong to have the ability to recruit, no. Do I think it's wrong to deny the ability to recruit becase of this conflict, no. So this issue needs to be resolved.
Kevin
P.S. May I ask yours and Davids permission to use thoughts from this thread in an article?
"Be excellent to each other, and, party on dudes"!
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saben
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On fire! |
Registered: May 2003
Messages: 1537
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Although the military law is wrong and sounds pretty awkward and restricting, as the old saying goes "two wrongs don't make a right" (but three lefts do). Setting laws to stop discrimination makes you just as bad as people that set dicriminitative laws. Setting laws doesn't change people they just harbour a resentful attitude towards the law instead, but changing people's attitudes through education and giving them their own free choice can mean laws progress.
(use any of this or my other posts as you see fit, I hold no copyright or anything over my ideas and opinions as I express them here- that goes for anyone. If it is appropriate to credit me, feel free to do so in whatever way you like [even anonymously as 'a random young man from the internet' or something], but if it is innappropriate to give credit I won't hold it against you.)
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
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I'm all for it - on the condition
that gays are allowed to serve openly.
And only then will I go for it.
It is disgusting for me, really.
Almost embarrasing. (Yes, I am a Republican)
Well, it is embarrasing. Degrading.
You said when you'd die that you'd walk with me every day
And I'd start to cry and say please don't talk that way
With the blink of an eye the Lord came and asked you to meet
You went to a better place but He stole you away from me
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Saben ... I agree with SOME of the spirit of your argument 
