WATCH: Speak Out Against The Jim Crow Of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

I'm just personally sick of the stupidity of kicking people out of the military simply because of who they love. I made this 40 second video about to try and make some slight difference; please watch but more importantly, please call the White House and make your voice heard.

I was inspired by Aaron Belkin's recent HuffPost piece and believe that an executive order by President Obama is possible and morally correct.

Comments

[BoyInBOYCOTT]

For those straights unfamilar with the Women's branches of service, WAVEs WACs, BAMs
from WWll through after Viet Nam...amos­t HALF of those women were LESBIANS, and the branches of service KNEW all about them.
Heterosexual women in the military are also threatened by DADT, because men who are turned down for unwanted sexual advances..­...can always call the straight woman ,.,,,a LESBIAN, and ruin her career.

[BoyInBOYCOTT]

Thank You Lee

I have 4 LGBT friends who are veterans spanning from the aftermath of the war in the Pacific in occupied Japan, to a vet from Viet Nam, and two first Gulf War vets.

They all selflessly served America, and DESERVED BETTER, than to have to live a lie while they protected America.

[zest]

Civil rights are not only about race.

[Georgiapundit]

Yea, but even the slightest comparison of this to the struggles of AAs during civil rights is offensive.

[FearlessFreep]

Why?

[Helzapoppin]

Finally! An article about something actually important!

[FearlessFreep]

Is it as important as a failed presidential candidate's sex life?

[randyjet]

I am a veteran, supporter of Obama, and long time liberal and civil rights activist. To compare what blacks went through to gays is so far off the mark it is offensive. The FACT is that gays are only kicked out of the service when THEY decide to leave and make their sexual preferences known to their superiors. Black Americans had NO such option as to either joining or leaving the service. They were obviously black 24/7 and there was no doubt about that. Gays can serve and even RETIRE from the military as long as they keep their sex life PRIVATE. The military is NOT doing undercover investigations as they did in the past to ferret out closet gays. THAT is the point of DON'T ASK. I am getting VERY tired of the histrionics that go with this topic. Let's try the TRUTH for a change.

[Lee Stranahan - Huffpost Blogger]

The experience of blacks and gays is different. That difference doesn't make comparisons impossible - it just means the experiences aren't identical in every respect.

But if you're really a defender of civil rights, you should see where the struggle is in America TODAY. There's a whole class of citizens who don't have the same rights because of who they love.

[jinsei]

That's exactly right! No one has a monopoly on human rights struggles.

[LewDan]

The experiences aren't identical in any respect other than you aren't being treated the way you want and neither are we; course that may also be true of whites, Mexicans, women -- well everybody really.

"Civil rights" meant, in the '60s Civil Rights Movement, rights granted under civil law. Blacks had them. Whites refused to recognize and enforce them. Then others, LGBTs among them, piggybacked onto that success in a concerted effort to hijack civil rights and make it about them. They've been so successful that today "civil rights" DOES apply to LGBTs; who do NOT have rights under civil law but WANT them. Believing Blacks should be supportive because its all about civil rights is doubly offensive. First you steal our struggle, make it about you and then WE OWE YOU?! BECAUSE you stole our struggle?! Blacks have legitimate reasons for resenting LGBTs and being unsupportive.

I'm not saying homophobia doesn't exist, it does, but its far less significant than gays pretend. It only takes a few to make a bad impression. And all too many LGBTs are their on worst enemies -- and absolutely refuse to even consider that either their own behavior might be part of the problem or that others reactions to them may be justified.

[JackNasty]

I'm getting sick and tired of homophobes who have benefitted from civil righst laws protection rationalizing that anti-gay discrimnination is somehow acceptable.

[LewDan]

You are a perfect example of what I meant in my comment to Mr. Stranahan above (below?!)

You defame anyone who disagrees as "homophobe­s."
You trivialize Blacks who fought and bled for their rights as if those rights were gifts.
You dismiss the perfectly appropriate rejection of offensive intolerant racists, such as yourself, as "rationali­zing."

No-one needs to be homophobic to be unsupportive and indifferent to the needs of people like you. And a few people like you ruin things for everyone.

[JackNasty]

The facts are:

* After World War II, the US with other Allied forces left gay men imprisoned by the Nazis in prison after others in the Nazi concentration camps were freed.

* Gay men have been excluded by the US military since the founding fo this country

* Having sex was a criminal offense for two gay men in the US until very recently. It still is a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for two men serving in the military to have sex with each other.

* In over half the US states gay men and women can can be fired from their jobs or lose their homes simply because they are gay. African Americans have state and federal civil rights protection.

*Unlike African Americans who have the support of their churches and families, gay men and women are often exiled from church and families because of their sexual orientation.

* Gay Americans are free to marry in Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut, Vermont, and soon in New Hampshire and Maine. However, other states are free to ignore those marriages and the federal goverenment does not recognize them at all. Mixed race couples have the protection of federal law.

*For hundreds of years, gay men were executed, burned at the stake or drowned by so-called Christians,

I'm sick of hearing from willfully ignorant people who already have protection of civil rights laws that gay people haven't suffered enough to deserve the same protections from discrimination. Now that is

[Gidster]

No one was left imprisoned by the Nazis Jack, that is false.

[jimmydarhling]

Let us all remember & never forget about a million pink triangles some time back in the 1930's....­..

[Charmed]

Randyjet..­..Thank you so much for your post......­.it is soooo offensive when the gay community keep bringing up blacks to compare things to......bl­ack people couldn't hide being black, it wasn't like they had to be asked if they were black. It seems like to me they would be talking about the religious people instead of blacks. Each time another article goes up, I notice it gets less and less comments because some black people are sick and tired of this comparisons.

[Lee Stranahan - Huffpost Blogger]

It's just different.­..

Nobody tries to cure black people so they won't be black any more...

Nobody tells black people they could choose to be white...

And so on...these are differences. There's no ranking of better or worse. But today - right now - black folks can serve openly in military. That wasn't always the case. So that isn't the struggle right nwo.

And by the way; there are black gay people, too.

[rmax53]

It's equally offensive to us gays to be discriminated against, even killed (e.g., Matthew Shepherd) for being gay. It's a bit like how blacks used to be treated (oh wait, sometimes they still are discriminated against, and perhaps killed, because they are black).

So, instead of struggling against each other, trying to determine who is more discriminated against, why don't blacks and gays agree that any discrimination based on race or sexual orientation is just wrong. OK?

[JohnDewey]

"black people couldn't hide being black," WRONG.

You are just wrong. Have you ever heard of, "passing?" Do you know the differences between field hands & house slaves? How about the phrases, "high yellow," or, "one drop theory," or, "paper bag test?" Do you know what the terms mulatto, quadroon & octoroon refer to & what their etymology is?

There is a long & storied tradition of "Black" folks of mixed ethnicity (such as myself), passing for "White" in America, whether out of necessity to get a job open only to apparent "Whites" or out of a place of self-hatred, inflicted by the oppressive majority culture. One of the gains achieved by the post-WW2 Civil Rights struggle was elimination of the NECESSITY of passing. The 60's & 70's brought phrases like, "Black Is Beautiful," because far too many people needed to be convinced.

So too with gays and lesbians, some of us are more "obviously" gay, others are better at appearing to be straight. Many of us can no more "hide" our sexual identity than you or anyone else can hide any other deeply-ingrained personality trait - certainly not without terrible consequences to the psyche & sense of self-worth. In America, no one should have to hide who they are.

You don't know the history of the African Diaspora, you don't know the history of struggle against oppression and you don't know what you're talking about. In America, no one should have to hide who they are.

[Busbydav]

So you're saying if you could snap your fingers and turn white while you were at work or served in the military and then snap your fingers to change the color of your skin back when you got home that you would be OK with that? To hide who you are, who you associate with, who you love for the sake of not being removed from the military, fired from your job, are beaten and strapped to a fence and left to die?? I think not, and the difference between you and me is I would NEVER ask you to....

[mgloraine]

Why bother? Obama doesn't give a damn about gay people, only their votes and campaign contributions (which he has already collected and spent). He will not lift a finger to change DADT.

[ckfan]

Sorry, but you're wrong. He won't do it on your timetable, but it will get done in 2010. This is politics and the economy and health care affects more people (voters) and will get addressed first. And when he does finally change DADT I'm sure you won't give him any credit. Why? Because it wasn't done on your timetable.

[JackNasty]

Justice delayed is justice denied.

[PlaceboStudman]

Well, you'll have to forgive some of us who have an emotional investment in this issue because we have friends or family who are affected, or we want to see things change before we die. Not all of us have the economy and health care as our primary issues, because we are terminally ill and were hoping to see some of the changes we had hoped would be affected before we die, which in my case is VERY likely to be before 2010