According to today's New York Times, the president's advisers are debating whether to characterize Mitt Romney in terms of his inconsistency on important policies (flip-flopper), his support for far-right positions that are out of touch with the moderate middle (extremist) or a combination of both. While there's no...

I was honored to attend policy briefings and a reception at the White House this week along with hundreds of activists and community leaders from around the country. It was a fascinating opportunity to take the temperature of the progressive base, in that participants represented a wide range of organizations...

Poor, poor Leon Panetta. Our Secretary of Defense has to find a way to cut $45 billion per year out of our $700 billion military budget. That's right, five percent.

At a moment when my students take on ever more debt because of steep tuition hikes which reflect...

After "Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) is repealed on September 20, it would be difficult for any future administration to reverse the change. Most of the country supports allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly, including a majority of Republicans, and it will be operationally and politically challenging to...

Senator John McCain, leader of efforts to block the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," took pains during recent Senate hearings to disavow the possibility that he might be motivated by prejudice. Senator McCain said that he is a nice guy who feels no animus towards gay men or lesbians,...

Back when Senator John McCain was a straight talker, he said that if military leadership ever told him that repealing "don't ask, don't tell" would be in the best interest of the forces, then he would change his views on the matter.

That was then and this...

Politico.com is reporting that two of the most important groups representing gay and lesbian troops, OutServe and KnightsOut, have requested that Congress pass the National Defense Authorization Bill, even if doing so would require sacrificing the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."

According to their logic, the repeal...

Last month, District Court Judge Virginia Phillips ruled that the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy barring openly gay troops from serving was unconstitutional. Today, she issued an injunction to the military worldwide, with one simple directive: The policy must end now. Since DADT "infringes the fundamental rights of United...

With control of the Senate up for grabs next month, the Democrats have a rare opportunity to eliminate the filibuster, one of the worst and most anti-democratic features of the American political system. Democratic Senators should announce that whether or not they retain control of the chamber, they will no...

This week, the Senate will finally vote on the defense spending bill containing language that paves the way for the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" next year. As the votes are counted, we should keep in mind that this vote ultimately comes down to one question only: should the...

Over the past two days, we have been treated to new evidence about the ever-mounting costs of "don't ask, don't tell." Yesterday, as reported in the Washington Post, the Palm Center released new Pentagon data which demonstrated the heavy burden that "don't ask, don't tell" places on women....

Joyous emails began flooding my in-box within seconds of today's announcement about the overturning Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot initiative that deprived gays and lesbians of the right to marry. Even if today's decision is reversed, this is a moment to celebrate the Court's expression of America's highest, inclusive...

I teach an American politics class to 700 undergraduates at San Francisco State University. On the day that we discuss immigration, I broadcast a startling, live image of a field in Texas on the huge movie screen behind me.

The live shot of an apparently innocuous field is shocking because...

Last week, the Pentagon released a survey about "don't ask, don't tell" to 400,000 US service members . Gay groups pounced immediately, complained about the survey's bias and aired their grievances to journalists who provided them with a great deal of air time.

The Pentagon survey is flawed, to be...

According to Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan "punished the military and demeaned our soldiers as they were courageously fighting two wars overseas" when, as Dean of Harvard Law School, she declined to provide military recruiters the same access to campus resources that other employers enjoyed.

After the Chiefs of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines sent letters to Congress today in a last-ditch effort to block the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili responded in force by sending his own letter to...

I am so glad that I was wrong.

For two years, I have been predicting that Congress would not have what it takes to pass "don't ask, don't tell" repeal legislation. Yesterday, however, the Obama administration threw its weight behind a compromise that will, over the next six months or...

When Secretary of Defense Robert Gates sent a letter to Congressman Ike Skelton today urging Congress not to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" in 2010, he wasn't just kicking the can down the road a little. He was announcing a de facto White House decision to delay action on the...

Former Air Force Chief of Staff Merrill McPeak published an op-ed in the New York Times today in which he claimed that during the 1993 debate over gays in the military, "A lot more heat than light was produced." McPeak says that as Washington reconsiders the question this...

Congressman Jim Moran read a letter on the floor of the House of Representatives today from an active duty soldier in Afghanistan. Congressman Moran stated that the soldier had, "learned that a fellow soldier was also gay, only after he was killed by an IED in Iraq. The partner of...