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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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The procedural vote to allow the real vote to be taken without too much obstruction has been won.
There is still a load of crap in the way. Only rejoice when the battle is won.
[Updated on: Sat, 18 December 2010 17:29]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Benji
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Likes it here |
Location: USA
Registered: August 2007
Messages: 297
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DADT HAS BEEN REPEALED SENATE VOTED 65-31 TO REPEAL IT
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Saturday, December 18, 2010 1532 EST
Brody's Notes... Don't Ask-Don't Tell Repealed In A 65-31 Vote: Bill Is Sent To President For Signature
By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) DEC 18 | In a 65-31 vote this afternoon the United States Senate has voted to repeal the 17 year old ban on Gays & Lesbians openly serving in the armed forces of the United States. The bill now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature into law.
In a related interview with MetroWeekly's political correspondent Chris Geidner:
"Saying that they had been "focused" on the vote, a senior White House aide intimately familiar with the administration's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal efforts was unwilling to say whether President Obama agrees with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) that DADT-releated investigations and discharges should be halted immediately."
Geidner also reported that the prospect of ending discharges and investigations immediately was raised by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network executive director Aubrey Sarvis, who told MetroWeekly:
"I think it's a practical, realistic approach that reflects where we stand today. There's this hiatus, there's this limbo, and who wants to be the last servicemember discharged under 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
As Sarvis said in a statement, "I respectfully ask Defense Secretary Robert Gates to use his authority to suspend all 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' investigations during this interim period. Until the President signs the bill, until there is certification, and until the 60-day Congressional period is over, no one should be investigated or discharged under this discriminatory law."
Michael Mitchell, Executive Director of the National Stonewall Democrats released this statement with the passage of DADT repeal in the Senate:
“It’s hard to find words to express how happy and relieved we are at National Stonewall Democrats that the despicable Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has finally been repealed. For the last 17 years, we have watched many in our country pretend DADT was necessary and right, when in fact it was neither. Today’s action by the US Senate begins to close a chapter of discrimination in the military based on sexual orientation that is hundreds of years long. Today, President Obama can say that he delivered on a big promise to our community and to the American people.
As Americans, we can be proud that integrity and justice are the big winners today, not partisan politics.
It goes without saying that we are very grateful for the hard work of Senate Democrats – not least of which Majority Leader Reid and Chairman Levin – who kept the path to repeal open when we thought it was lost, and who provided the vast majority of votes for repeal. It would be ungracious of us to not also thank the of Republican Senators who showed courage and bucked the obstructionist leadership of their party by voting to help restore integrity to our military.
We also thank the tireless work of the patriots in the LGBT and allied communities who have been involved with the repeal effort, and we thank our own NSD members for their thousands upon thousands of letters, phone calls and in-person meetings that helped move the country toward repeal.
Finally, we continue to be deeply appreciative of the brave women and men in uniform who currently serve and have served our country, some at incredible sacrifice, who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. We know the heavy burden that serving silently has been for them and we are humbled by their service under such difficult circumstances. We have been honored to have been able to fight for them in our own way – as they fight and have fought for our country.”
[Updated on: Sat, 18 December 2010 21:56] |
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Thank you, Brody. I know you have been one of those outspoken critics of this disgusting foolishness which has ruined the lives of so many gay and lesbian members of our community.
Now we shall have to wait and monitor the implimentation for the battle is not over as you well know. Perhaps one of the first positive steps that might occur would be for John McCain to resign. They have some nice homes for the aging in Phoenix. He should go hold court there since he is useless in the Congress.
But although we may celebrate this moment we cannot expect the rest of the world to applaud, they have been laughing at us too long for that to happen. Perhaps the Marines should stop acting like a bunch of spoiled children and grow up, otherwise they should be replaced with civilian contractors.
[Updated on: Sat, 18 December 2010 23:39]
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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You could outsource it to an Indian call centre. Most battles are computer controlled nowadays anyway. Who would notice a little more friendly fire?
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Benji
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Likes it here |
Location: USA
Registered: August 2007
Messages: 297
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Wouldn't the administrations withdrawal of the appeal of the Federal courts decision to stop DADT enforcement, force the Pentagon to stop all investigations and discharges of gay servicemen and women? Or should the commander-in-chief or Secretary of Defense order a freeze of it? It seems to me that the discrimination could be stopped in its tracks immediately.
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Sunday, December 19, 2010
Brody's Scribbles... The Battlefield May Shift- But The Enemy Remains The Same
By Brody Levesque (Bethesda, Maryland) DEC 19 | Maybe it's just an old fashioned case of bone-tired fatigue driven dismay settling in- but whatever the reason- I find it difficult to celebrate the vote in the United States Senate yesterday that freed Gay & Lesbians from the oppressive conditions that they've been forced to endure since 1993, actually now that I am thinking about it, AND beyond to serve in uniform.
Partially because of this type of response from opponents of LGBT Equality Rights as in this lovely example from the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer, who wrote in his syndicated column about an hour after the final Senate vote to repeal DADT yesterday:
"We are now stuck with sexual deviants serving openly in the U.S. military because of turncoat Republican senators.
(Dictionary definition of "deviant": "departing from usual or accepted standards, esp. in social or sexual behavior." "Deviant" is not name calling, it is truth-telling.)"
*sigh* Yeah well excuse it any way you want Fischer, but its still unacceptable to refer to your fellow humans as deviants as I really don't see where you have any moral authority or standing to do so. Of course then Bryan doesn't stop there, continuing on he says:
"The armies of other nations have allowed gays to serve openly in the military. The reason they could afford to do this is simple: they could allow homosexuals to serve in their military because we didn't allow them to serve in ours.
They knew they could count on the strength, might, power, and cohesion of the U.S. military to intervene whenever and wherever necessary to pull their fannies out of the fire and squash the forces of tyranny wherever they raised their ugly heads around the world.
Those days are now gone. We will no longer be able to bail out these other emasculated armies because ours will now be feminized and neutered beyond repair, and there is no one left to bail us out. We have been permanently weakened as a military and as a nation by these misguided and treasonous Republican senators, and the world is now a more dangerous place for us all."
Really Bryan? Really? Feminised AND neutered? [ Insert BIGGER sigh of exasperation here folks.... ] Look, Fischer, there's a decorated and valiant United States Marine Staff Sergeant who lost his right leg in a car bombing in the Iraq war that just damn well might disagree with that assessment of yours.
In fact, I'm pretty sure that SSGT Eric Alva would STRONGLY disagree with your onerous proclamation that the U. S. military is now officially neutered.
Let's talk about Sergeant Alva for a moment shall we Bryan?
Eric Alva always wanted to be a Marine, and he did not let being gay get in his way. His grandfather had served in World War II and Korea, and his father served in Vietnam; Eric joined the Marines at age 19 and served for thirteen dedicated honorable years, becoming a Staff Sergeant. He served in Somalia, Japan, and Iraq. His decorations include a Purple Heart, a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation, five Navy and Marine Corps Achievement medals, a Joint Meritorious Unit Citation, A Presidential Unit Citation, and a Combat Action Ribbon, among others.
Please note Fischer that he had served the United States in a Marine Corps uniform for 13 years and then tragically, during a logistic convoy in Iraq in 2003, he stepped on a land mine and lost his right leg. Ironically, that also gave Sergeant Alva the unenviable distinction of being the first American serviceman wounded in the war in Iraq. Later, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC, he was personally visited by then President and Mrs. George W. Bush who paid homage and thanked him for his service and sacrifice to his country.
I don't know about you Fischer, but that sure as hell doesn't sound like a feminine United States Marine to me, does it you? Unfortunately, the SSGT was medically retired from the Marines in June of 2004 owing to loss of his limb and other injuries.
Sergeant Alva described his career once as a sacrifice but one he very intentionally chose:
"You must want to make it, its huge, but you choose to sacrifice freedom to serve this country."
Sounds like he most definitely "has a pair," thus being neutered is definitely NOT part of the equation.
For many in the Gay and Lesbian community, including those who are veterans of a few years of service, and in the general population, it is difficult to comprehend why someone Gay or Lesbian would be willing to put aside their private life and sacrifice the freedom of his or her best years for a life in the military.
To gain insight into why someone, gay or straight, would take on the ultimate challenge of becoming a Marine, a journalist interviewed an openly Gay retired U. S, Marine Corps colonel who lives here in the metropolitan Washington DC area who had served in combat in Vietnam. That officer told him:
"I was looking for a career that would place me amongst what others would view as one of the finest organizations in the world; with people who have an extremely high level of honesty and integrity and who truly work together and live together as a team. It just so happened that all or many of these qualities come together in the United States Marine Corps."
Now Bryan, before you jump onto Senator McCain's band wagon and reiterate, as did he, General James Amos' unfortunate and ill advised remarks that repealing the DADT policy would lead to loss of Marine lives and limbs due to "distractions," let me quote a serving Marine infantry officer, a straight one I might add that publicly parted ways with the Commandant in a column published Friday, December 17th in the Washington Post.
USMC Captain Nathan Cox wrote:
"On Tuesday, Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, said he believes repealing "don't ask, don't tell" and allowing gay and lesbian Marines to serve openly could "cost Marines' lives" because of the "mistakes and inattention or distractions" that might ensue. I am not homosexual. And in this instance, I must respectfully disagree with my commandant...
In the end, Marines in combat will treat sexual orientation the same way they treat race, religion and one's stance on the likelihood of the Patriots winning another Super Bowl. I do not believe the intense desire we all feel as Marines to accomplish the mission and protect each other will be affected in the slightest by knowing the sexual orientation of the man or woman next to us.
It is time for "don't ask, don't tell" to join our other mistakes in the dog-eared chapters of history textbooks. We all bleed red, we all love our country, we are all Marines. In the end, that's all that matters."
You REALLY need to go read the entire article Fischer as does your buddy Senator McCain.
The point being that to be able to meet the challenge and be accepted into the Marine Corps and to be successful within the USMC has no bearing on whether you are gay or not.
Is SSGT Alva exceptional in his square-jawed determination, both to have been a Marine, and now to be an openly Gay spokesman for the right to serve? I do not think so Bryan, Sergeant Alva himself pointed out that:
"I am in a unique position to stand up for rights; I sacrificed for this country and I have a point to make." Losing a leg changed his life, he said.
We have the best military in the world; all men and women should be given the chance to serve for who they are. The transformation may be difficult when it happens," he said, "but it will happen."
Are you honestly going to continue to spew the ignorant rants and ravings out of your mouth Fischer that people like Sergeant Alva are deviant? Seriously? You actually wrote this too:
This isn't a game, and the military should never be used, as is now being done, for massive social re-engineering. The new Marine motto: "The Few, the Proud, the Sexually Twisted." Good luck selling that to strong young males who would otherwise love to defend their country. What virile young man wants to serve in a military like that?
I am beyond being able to comprehend how any rational and reasonably intelligent adult, child, or for that matter a human being could take you seriously Bryan. The Sexually Twisted???? Sadly, you don't stop there, oh no, then there's this:
"Rarely can you point to a moment in time when a nation consigned itself to the scrap heap of history. Today, when the Senate normalized sexual perversion in the military, was that moment for the United States. If historians want a fixed marker pointing to the instant the United States sealed its own demise, they just found it."
You really want to know why the SPLC, GLAAD, the ACLU, for Pete's sake even members of Congress and the press refer to your dreck & drivel as 'hate' speech Fischer? The answer is clear. YOU demonise LGBT Americans sitting as judge and jury regarding an aspect of their life that is absolutely NONE of your business, making divisive comments with absolutely no basis in truth or fact, especially fact, as Sergeant Alva and Captain Cox make abundantly clear.
Feminised Fischer?
You sir, are an idiot and THAT is a fact. Sealed its own demise? Thankfully, because of brave and patriotic GAY and LESBIAN Marines, Sailors, Airman, Soldiers, and Coast Guardsman like SSGT Eric Alva- I seriously doubt that the U. S. is headed for its demise and paraphrasing what noted American novelist Mark Twain once said; "Reports of its death are premature and greatly exaggerated."
This is NOT over, the thing is that the battlefield now shifts from Congress and DADT to the next skirmish over ENDA, DOMA, Prop 8.... the Culture War goes on and as you can see from Bryan Fischer's brilliant treatise, the enemy and his tirade/ranting/parade of pointless propaganda remains the same. Oh and of course lest I forget- Fischer's peers and accomplices.
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Re: Apart form that fuckwit McCain, DADT may be about to die 
Re: Despite that fuckwit McCain, DADT suffered a sudden death. 
