The past few weeks have brought bad news for gay and lesbian military members. West Point graduate and Army 1st Lt. Dan Choi received his discharge a few weeks ago. West Point graduate and Army Captain Jonathan Hopkins received his discharge this week. Air Force Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach’s file is now at its last destination and Lt. Col. Fehrenbach could receive his discharge by the end of this week. West Point Cadet-Sergeant Katherine Miller is resigning this week, before committing the next 12 10 years of her life to the Army to attend Yale because of don’t ask don’t tell.
The third-party outing exception isn’t counting as Sec. Def. Robert Gates promised. So much for “more humane implementation”. The policy study is walking so slowly through the Pentagon that it may actually be crawling on its knees, stopping to breastfeed and take naps every couple of hours.
President Obama refuses to do either of two things he could do to put the policy implementation on hold until the policy changes, which will be soon. He could issue a stop-loss order as commander-in-chief, or he could issue a temporary executive order as president.
He also needs to order the Pentagon to finish its study. They’ve had long enough to come up with implementation procedures. It’s time to implement them.
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Rachel Maddow has it right. It would take guts to stop DADT until its repeal. It would take political capital the President seems to not want to spend.
West Point Cadet-Sergeant Katherine Miller’s story is one of the most heartbreaking and damning. She’s leaving West Point as one of the top 10 in her class (9th out of over 1100) to attend Yale. She’s a lesbian and is resigning from West Point because of DADT, having to lie against Army values and compromise her own integrity.
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Who in their right mind would not want this cadet under their command? Apparently, President Obama.
The current military ethos seems to be tell the truth in all things, except lie like hell if you’re gay. Because it doesn’t matter how good you are at your job, if you’re gay, you’re out. It’s wrong to demand men and women of impeccable integrity lie about an integral part of who they are just to serve their country.
We the taxpayers have spent billions of dollars training the nearly 14,000 military members who have been kicked out because of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. We’ve spent about $25 million training Lt. Col. Fehrenbach alone. It’s the financially responsible thing to do, on top of being morally right. We could stop wasting billions of military dollars by keeping our gay and lesbian members. What an easy way to make better use of the military budget!
So, President Obama, why don’t you sign the damn stop-loss order or executive order right now, today? These exemplary people and the billions of dollars we’ve spent aren’t worth it? They’re expendable? They aren’t expendable, and this is flat out wrong.
No excuses, Mr. President. Just do it. Inject some calcium into your spine and do the right thing. Just sign the order. And do it now.
\\ tags: Air Force Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, Army Capt. Jonathan Hopkins, don't ask don't tell policy, Rachel Maddow, West Point Cadet Sgt. Katherine Miller, West Point Graduate 1st Lt. Dan Choi
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