WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama will allow gays to serve openly in the military by overturning the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that marred President Clinton’s first days in office, according to incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
The startling pronouncement, which could re-open a dormant battle in the culture wars and distract from other elements of Obama’s agenda,
That will be his sop to gays upset about his opposition to gay marriage. You can’t get married, but we will kindly permit you to die in the service of your country as an openly gay person.
Wow.
That should do it.
UPDATE: At least on the conservative talkers I checked on the way to work this morning, the usual conservative gay-haters were having a hemorrhage over the very notion of letting gays openly serve in the military, as does every European military without incident, including the amateurs of the British services.
Submit to Stumbled Upon!
As a proud gay American Muslim I have 2 disadvantages. First I am a gay for 20 year and happily married to a Palestinian man. I am pretty sure I can not serve in the military since 9/11.
Also I am in treatment because I was raped in Israeli prison by 2 Russian Moldovans. I am pretty sure nobody will let me be a Marine. I love my country and wont to contribute but looks like I am going to stay a librarian in local college for a long time..
On the other hand, it was the full integration of the armed services that led to full legal equality and an end to Jim Crow in the larger society.
Bill, the “British Services” link does not work. It might be a problem with Yons website. Sometimes I connect, sometimes not.
Sorry, Barry. It worked for me just now, but I do understand that I am special, and not everybody enjoys my special connectability gifts.
Yea, I just connected without a problem. Earlier i could not connect with the link, and only rarely to the home page. Maybe too much traffic today…
personally, i don’t care. we have gays in the Army/military. that is a fact. however, the problem we are seeing with gays in the military is the first front in the war on our values and laws. once we break down gay conduct/gay marriage/whatever… where does it end? swingers, polygamy, etc…
again, i’m on the fence but i can see where this is going.
Whose business is it except the swingers’ or polygamists’?
Yeah, those are the Major Threats To Our Way of Life. It must be comforting to know that you have the Islamofascists 100% in your corner.
In fact, maybe we should just surrender to them. You can be sure they’ll protect everybody from the threat of the fags, the swingers, the polygamists…
Oh, wait a minute. They are the polygamists.
What problem is that?
The even smaller percentage of service people that is so homophobic that it resorts to violence against gays. Easily handled by enforcing the UCMJ. After repealing sec. 925 art. 125.
Wes, slippery slope is not an argument, it’s a fallacy. We can evaluate each case on its own merits, and not be stampeded into doing idiotic things because someone claims “rights”. Not that we do, necessarily, but we can.
Personally, I’d love to see gays welcomed into the kinetic aspects of the War on Islamofascism. They should realize that they have as much at stake in this fight as the Jews, because our enemies intend to show them exactly as much mercy.
Minor pet peeve here. Slippery slope is not a fallacy. It is perfectly valid to argue that doing A will increase the probability of some chain of events occurring that will result in an undesirable Z. It’s only a fallacy if you state that A will invariably lead to Z. You can even argue that the probability of A leading to Z is 99.99% and not be committing a fallacy. (Not really disagreeing with your point though, martinra, just nitpicking)