DADT Protest: Gay Activists Arrested For Chaining Themselves To White House Fence To Protest Don't Ask Don't Tell

The Advocate:

Six gay activists have reportedly been arrested at the White House this afternoon during a protest against "don't ask, don't tell."

Read the whole story: The Advocate

Comments

[booboopickle]

08:56 AM on 05/03/2010

If we treat gay soldiers with respect we will have to treat all soldiers with respect. If gay people are given equal rights, then everyone will want them.

[AguynamedWayne]

06:25 AM on 05/03/2010

It was nice to see Howard Dean there. Thank God the Dems have at least one true Progressive:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKr5HsS6-h8&feature=player_embedded

Obama's political cowardice on this issue is PATHETIC!

[SPQR1052]

06:43 AM on 05/03/2010

It's your cowardice which is pathetic, he's president and who are you? Just as I thought a hack.

[FearlessFreep]

05:06 PM on 05/03/2010

If he's president he has no excuse for cowardice.

[booboopickle]

08:53 AM on 05/03/2010

Yes We Can! We're just not going to.

[AguynamedWayne]

06:21 AM on 05/03/2010

As the activist were arrested they continued to chant: We Will Not Disappear! We Will Remember in November!

Yes the Gay Community will indeed remember Obama and the Dems betrayals come November!

[SPQR1052]

06:45 AM on 05/03/2010

Good luck with the Republicans. You deserve what you receive with your foolish take no prisoners meme.

Count me as one GLBT activist who shall not support you in your efforts.

[superstition]

12:46 AM on 05/05/2010

The old "if you don't like the worse you had better like the bad" meme.

The gAyTM is closed.

[WYHKTai-Tai]

05:54 AM on 05/03/2010

Just throwing this out there:

I've read opinions here and elsewhere that an Executive Order to repeal DADT is not the optimal way to go because it could easily be changed by the next POTUS, and (dog forbid) that next POTUS may be more akin to our last POTUS than our current one.

BUT: Given the nature of the DADT issue, The cat cannot go back in the bag. If an executive order WAS given and the military had the next few years without DADT, living in the open, do you really think THEY, (military) would try to put the cat back in the bag?

I would think that they may see that their fears were unfounded and it would be as it should be, a non-issue? No?

[AguynamedWayne]

06:23 AM on 05/03/2010

The only reason Obama wont support a moratorium on discharges and keeps delaying repeal has NOTHING to do with the military, IT"S ALL POLITICS. Obama and the Dems don't want to have to make ANY hard political choices before thier precious elections. The equality of millions of gay citizens means NOTHING to them. It's all about their re-election. It's the only thing they care about.

Cowards.

[SPQR1052]

06:48 AM on 05/03/2010

That's why I have you fanned - logical reasoning capabilties. Thank you.

[SPQR1052]

05:33 AM on 05/03/2010

I believe it is a disservice to the GLBT by this blog and MSM to continue to give voices to these persons without giving those within the community (especially who have honorably served) equal voices who oppose these tactics.

It is also a characteristic of some within the the GLBT to attack the voices of those who do not condone such behavior.

I denounce and reject this type behavior by anyone who is active duty or reservist. As I see it a court martial is justified. Additionally for those who are detached from reality US Military answers to a MILITARY TRIBUNAL. Which is not the same as you private citizens receive.

President Obama has done more for the GLBT community in his 18 month term than any other administration. In fact I'd submit he's done more than all previous administrations this century combined!

Being GLBT is part of what I am not all thereof.

There are many challenges which face this nation and require attention I don't think that this ranks in the majority of citizens top ten list.

In conclusion for those who toss out civil rights and protests - it's apples and oranges. Protests are a privilege for private citizens not active or reservist military.

To even suggest that any military ought engage in protest is reckless and irresponsible. We are not a banana republic. Such behavior if condoned would lead to MILITARY JUNTAS!

[AguynamedWayne]

06:19 AM on 05/03/2010

The Advocate is the longest running gay news magazine in America. I think your bikini is on way too tight. It's obviously shorting out your brain.

[SPQR1052]

06:46 AM on 05/03/2010

As if you ever had a brain....

[SPQR1052]

05:11 AM on 05/03/2010

The " ADVOCATE" is a tabloid rag. They respresent themselves and only themsleves. They ought be working to correct the dysfuntionlism and discrimination "within" the greater GLBT communities. But no. It's all about the pretty boys, celelbrities, fresh new meat an hottest soirees.

The editor is a journalism drop out much akin to Palin.

Signed a GLBT community activist.

[AguynamedWayne]

06:18 AM on 05/03/2010

The Advocate is the longest running gay news magazine in America. I think your bikini is on way too tight. It's obviously shorting out your brain.

[SPQR1052]

06:39 AM on 05/03/2010

Perhaps from your prespective however I disagree and strongly believe "Advocte" lacks integrity and inclusion on its staff and in its articles. Let's talk about the issues which face the community that go ignored: political affiliation (right is absent) racism, socieconomic and education discrepancies.

The list goes on and on my friend. No, it's your bikini which is too tight.

The Advocate does not respresent me nor anyone remotely similar in disposition to me.

[Pandaforum]

02:52 AM on 05/03/2010

where were the photographers for this event? they were barred from taking pictures. why would obama think he could sweep this issue under the rug?

[KIVPossum]

04:06 AM on 05/03/2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaBk1dUF9nM

Where were the photographers? Photographing the cops pushing people back.

[SPQR1052]

05:07 AM on 05/03/2010

You are such a fake and I doubt that you care either way. It is my belief that people like you make this claims to stroke the fringe elements on the leftside in order to split the cacaus.

It is my hope that people see through your feigned attempts playing the activists against each other.

[Roguewolf]

02:04 AM on 05/03/2010

The Obama regime silences dissent.

[Steamboater]

03:37 AM on 05/03/2010

Well, let's not get carried away. Obama holds power because he won a fair election; this is no regime as much as his lack of spine to do anything and suspend DADT at least is remindful of one.

[SPQR1052]

05:04 AM on 05/03/2010

You lie my friend and i am exhausted about your comment and others like it. The US President cannot "ssuspend" DADT Obama or whoever. It is a LAW and must be repealled via the legislative proccess. THE PRESIDENT IS NOT A DICTATOR who can wave a magic wand. Secondly where are the 60 vote sin the US Senate? It's like when Speaker Pelosi said impeachment was off the table she knew the votes were not there and regardless of what you and others believe - forget about the polls - the votes are not there, not yet.

I trust this administration will eventually repeal this unjust law but to say that one lacks the spine is over the top.

The president as leader of the Democrats has perhaps the most difficult task in the world - an eclectic coalition which is truly most times self defeating.

I don't profess to know constitutionally if he can issue an executive order for "stopping" dismissals. One with a rational mind and reason knows that the GOP would challenge even that.

This is not the battle nor time to stake the mid-terms.

All or nothing is a self-defeating attitude by some millitant activists.

I am former military and proud GLBT and my opinion, although not expressed in the MSM is pragmatic and sensible.

[AguynamedWayne]

06:27 AM on 05/03/2010

Steamboater is spot on while bikini boy has had WAY TOO MUCH Kool-aide

[SPAIN62]

01:37 AM on 05/03/2010

Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.
Oscar Wilde

[Pandaforum]

02:51 AM on 05/03/2010

wilde led the way.

[Steamboater]

03:38 AM on 05/03/2010

I think The Boston Tea Party was a bit before Wilde. :)

[Senseid]

01:15 AM on 05/03/2010

Honestly, what real difference will repealing DADT even have? What changes will soldiers even notice if the law is ever repealed? Will gay soldiers suddenly start talking about gay sex all day? Uh, I highly doubt it. Chances are that the actual soldiers overseas won't notice a whole lot. If anything. At all.

Soldiers are overseas to defend the country as a unit, not to sit around a talk about their sexual orientation.

[KenClay]

11:36 PM on 05/02/2010

What did 8 years of Bush do for us?

[superstition]

11:45 PM on 05/02/2010

They got the Dems all three houses and a super-majority. They got someone who was dubbed "the most liberal senator" the presidency. They were years in which conservatives/Republicans/church-goers shifted to oppose DADT.

Gays? We got speeches about a civil rights struggle "from Selma to Stonewall" at a 2008 Waldorf Astoria fundraiser for rich gays and troops fired for being gay at the same rate as before.

We got someone who called DOMA "abhorrent" only to stand by his DOJ's briefs: http://www.americablog.com/2009/06/rachel-maddow-and-howard-dean-on-obamas.html

We got someone who said a person's sexual orientation has no bearing on their military eligibility who stood behind his DOJ's briefs, pressured Alcee Hastings into withdrawing his bill to end DADT, removed repeal language from the White House website, and the like: http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/13732/rinse-repeat-obama-admin-aggressively-defending-dadt-in-court

We worked hard to elect "change we can believe in" and got a third term of Bush.

[KIVPossum]

01:40 AM on 05/03/2010

We don't see Obama changing it, do we? And who was in the White House now that order the police to back the press up a few hundred yards and closed off the park?

[Balancement]

10:32 PM on 05/02/2010

In the Virgil Thomson/Gertrude Stein opera "The Mother of us All," the lesbian genius Gertrude Stein wrote a lyric that applies here: "Susan B. Anthony was right, and she was right because she was right."

So it is with Lt. Dan Choi. He's right because he's right.

[Steamboater]

03:45 AM on 05/03/2010

And as to Choi and Stein: "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" and as for Obama, there's nothing sweet-smelling about a weed.

[wijg]

10:06 PM on 05/02/2010

Pelosi Statement on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Policy

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement in response to a letter sent this afternoon by Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Secretary Robert Gates concerning the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy:

“We all look forward to the report on the review of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy by the Defense Department. In the meantime, the Administration should immediately place a moratorium on dismissals under this policy until the review has been completed and Congress has acted.”

http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=1671

[superstition]

10:23 PM on 05/02/2010

I hope this isn't like her "support" of the public option. (Fake support until it came time to actually stand up to the White House and its once secret deal with the industry.)

Let's see her really get behind bills to repeal. (Tauscher's languished. Hastings' was withdrawn under White House pressure. Others have picked up the repeal ball, only to do nothing.)

So far, she hasn't. In fact, months ago she announced that "controversial" legislation won't be moved on this year. Analysts took that to mean no movement on any gay rights legislation. Also, months ago, the White House made it known that it doesn't have any intention of moving on DADT repeal.

[superstition]

10:27 PM on 05/02/2010

Still, even this gesture is more than what we've gotten from the White House. I hope she continues to press.

[wijg]

10:53 PM on 05/02/2010

I agree. I posted this mostly because of the discussion below about whether Obama can issue an executive order.

Whatever her reasons, I find it interesting that she's calling Obama out.

[momcat54]

09:29 PM on 05/02/2010

Choi is doing what he thinks is right and he KEEPS doing it , I admire him tremendously. It took women many many years of doing exactly what he is doing to get the vote . They were jailed , often commited to mental institutions and force fed when they went on hunger strikes but like Lt Choi they kept at it because they knew what they were doing was right. To judge someone as less than equal because of the color of their skin their sex or sexual preference is archaic. There is no reason why well qualified willing people cannot openly serve in the millitary. They ask nothing more than to servetheir country and be treated just like everyone else

[superstition]

09:44 PM on 05/02/2010

"Being in chains, for me, matched what was in my heart the whole time I was serving and was closeted. Harriet Tubman once said she had freed 1,000 slaves but could have freed so many more if they only knew that they were slaves. People don't always know that they are in fetters. Even my feet were shackled so I could only take small steps forward. To me that symbolizes what it is to live under Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the only law that enforces shame. Those chains symbolized how my country is trying to restrict my movement, how we are only allowed incremental, tiny steps.

When I get messages from people who want to be a part of this I ask back: what are you willing to sacrifice?

I'm not guilty, I'm not ashamed, and I'm not finished."

-- Lt. Dan Choi

[PhilipB]

10:09 PM on 05/02/2010

Hi Momcat54!!
Yes, I also thought of Emeline Pankhurst and others who protested by chaining themselves for women's right to vote. They indeed suffered many wretched indignities for equality and justice, and we all owe them so much. I am also reminded of the The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who sought justice for their children who were murdered in Argentina.
My heros are those who stand up against injustice. We are all dignified by their courage.
Warm regards,
and fanned.
:)

[Steamboater]

03:49 AM on 05/03/2010

Those women were force-fed and some waterboarded too. You do what you have to do to get attention for equal rights with the exception of violence.

[KenClay]

09:23 PM on 05/02/2010

Come out of the Closet and lets be heard! Show everyone we are a viable source to reckoned with!