Last week, with a vote of 230 to 191, the House of Representatives voted to repeal former President Bill Clinton's 1993 "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy that bars lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer service members from serving openly in the military. On the same day the House passed to repeal DADT, so, too, did the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"This legislation will help make our armed forces even stronger and more inclusive by allowing gay and lesbian soldiers to serve honestly and with integrity," President Obama told the Associated Press.
But at the end of the day of all this historic voting, last week, the plight of our LGBTQ service members remained unchanged.
Investigations and discharges for being an openly LGBTQ service member will continue on as usual. Why? Because the Pentagon has not completed its study, reviewing how to maintain the military's "unit cohesion" while integrating LGBTQ service members.
December 1 is the day the country will know the results of the Pentagon study. We will also know if the welcoming mat will truly begin to unfold for our LGBTQ service members.
So, with the military having the real power to either overturn or to uphold DADT, what was last week's voting in the House and the Senate Armed Services Committee really about?
Pressure? Posturing? Or both?
"While the power to actually overturn 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' remains with military commanders many see a congressional vote before the report is completed as political pressure, " writes W. James Antle III at the American Conservative.
And the pressure comes from both conservatives and the LGBTQ activist community.
Polls have revealed that where the country was in 1993 with DADT is vastly different from where the country is today. As a matter of fact most Americans -- even Republicans -- are not opposed to the military having LGBTQ service members.
But with midterm elections just five months away and with a Republican anti-Obama movement aggressively trying to retake Congress, the chances of repealing DADT become slimmer.
In last week's House vote, 168 Republicans opposed repealing DADT and only 5 Republicans voted with the Democrat House majority.
For many in the LGBTQ community we are anxious about the repeal of DADT coming to fruition, and feel that last week's historic voting was more about posturing from the President and his administration than effecting real and substantive change on our behalf.
"For the two of us -- and many more who have been working for the repeal of this legislation for months and years -- this effort is simply a way for Congress, the White House, and the Pentagon to shift responsibility to one another indefinitely," DADT activists Cpl. Evelyn Thomas and Lt. Dan Choi wrote in an open letter.
And shifting responsibility on repealing DADT is what the Obama administration has been doing since the President took office.
For example, soon after Obama's inauguration in 2009, the LGBTQ community waited anxiously to hear that steps were being made to repeal DADT. But on June 8 of that year when the Supreme Court refused to review the Pentagon policy that prohibits LGBTQ service members to serve openly in the military, Obama's people added salt to the wounds of our community by stating in court papers that the ruling on DADT was correct because of the military's legitimate concern of LGBTQ service members endangering "unit cohesion" -- a concept totally debunked by a 2002 study.
While the Obama administration shifts responsibility on repealing DADT, Lt. Dan Choi and Capt. James Pietrangelo have begun a Dignity Fast, bringing focus to last week's compromised vote that still maintains DADT rather than totally doing away with it.
"In response to the United States Senate and the House of Representatives voting on the repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' forces are mobilizing for non-violent direct action and civil disobedience. ...Fasting will commence. The simple demands are (1) End DADT firings. (2) Enact non-discrimination. (3) End the insulting, wasteful study. The community knows that the President does have within his power to end the discharges immediately. The President has not responded authentically in ending the firings and inherent discrimination," Choi wrote.
To date, more than 13,500 LGBTQ service members have been discharged under DADT, and the number continues to grow. (And African American lesbians have been discharged at three times the rate at which they serve.)
The posturing last week from Congress was great theater. All the thespians performed their parts well, especially Obama. Why? If DADT is not repealed, it gives the President an easy out. It allows Obama to distance himself politically by shifting the responsibility and blame for DADT's outcome from himself to someone else.
Rev. Dr. Cindi Love: And the Truth Shall Make Us Free
On June 14, 2010, we celebrate Flag Day in the United States, and, for the first time in our history as a nation, citizens who identify as transgender will have at least one good reason to believe that our United States flag flies for them as well.
Never mind that 83% of DADT discharges are of those who outed themselves or that 90% occur within 1.5 years of service. Exactly how can anyone claim that all of these discharges were bonafide gays? No one knows how many hetros feigned being gay in order to get a ticket home and not honor their contractual duties. This alone is good enough reason to trash the whole thing.
Anyone stupid enough to want to join the military should be allowed to.
After turning 50 nine years ago, I started suspecting full gay equality won't come in my lifetime, mainly because the same homophobia that's dogged most gay baby boomers throughout our lives isn't going to disappear until the last Boomer is dead.
That shouldn't stop us from pursuing our dream, children. When I'm ninety, I'll be knocking down the homophobes with a whack from my cane, if I have to.
I've a dear friend, Wade. Lives in a rough section of Omaha. Wade has AIDS. Should have been dead 15 years ago. A while back, Wade was out walking his dog. A druggie and knocked Wade down and tried to steal his wallet, kicking Wade while he was down.
Wade the guy's hand and bit him. Real hard. To the bone.
Bloody and still holding on to his dog, Wade got himself to the police and reported the crime. He explained his HIV status, admitted to biting the guy. A cop asked Wade if he could describe the guy.
Wade said yes. He added, "I've got his DNA right here."
He pulled out his false teeth, covered with the guy's blood, and handed them to the officer.
"Keep 'em. I've got another pair at home," Wade said. "Keep your eyes on the emergency rooms for a guy with a 'dog bite.'"
Oh yeah, Wade kept his wallet.
Wade stood up to a mugger. The rest of us can hold out for full gay rights.
They will certainly leave no stone unturned during their 'study' in order to come up with a million reasons why LGTB citizens are not qualified to serve their country. It will get vulgar, ugly, and they will publicly demean the LGTB community via the media at each and every given opportunity.
The study will go on and on much longer than originally anticpated. THAT'S just how much 'stuff' they'll find as reasons to disqualify us. The powers that be will not sign off on the repeal. It's just not the right time, and all...
Obama will say he tried and so can you please give him some more money for the next election so he can continue his fierce advocacy.
The End.
So far, all we have from Obama is the invitation of "kill the gays" Rick Warren to join in the inauguration celebration, thereby alienating his formerly most ardent supporters, at the very beginning.
Talking about kicking your supporters to the curb.
Fanned and faved.