As DADT Dies, The Repeal of DOMA Becomes Critical

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As the letter set out above signed by senior U.S. Army brass indicates Don't Ask, Don't Tell is dead as of today. Yes, the hate merchants of the Christian Right and their groveling political whores in the Republican Party will continue to spread anti-gay lies and claim that the sky is falling, but I suspect that DADT's death will be permanent - at least unless and until the Christianists achieve their goal of overthrowing the U.S. Constitution and establishing a theocracy in this country. But DADT's death leaves much work still to be done, most particularly imposing a similar death on the falsely named federal Defense of Marriage Act ("DOMA").

Like DADT, DOMA is all about religious based discrimination and the far right's agenda of granting Christianists beliefs special rights in the nation's laws that trample on the rights of non-Christianists and punish LGBT individuals in particular. Thus, even as celebrations take place around the country today - I plan on being at the event this evening at Waterside in Norfolk - GetEQUAL will be holding a “Day of Discontent” to call attention to the need for full federal equality for LGBT Americans. Because of DOMA and state law equivalents, same sex couples continue to be treated like garbage by their state and federal governments. A Huffington Post column summarizes the rampant discrimination that remains after today's momentous death of DADT:

"The protests and rallies are meant to be the next chapter," Heather Cronk, managing director for GetEQUAL, told The Huffington Post. . . . The end of DADT will mean little to gays and lesbians still living in conservative regions of the country, she told HuffPost.

Gays and lesbians in the military will be able to come out of the closet Tuesday but will still be denied benefits and protections accorded to their straight, married counterparts because of the Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA defines marriage for federal purposes as between one man and one woman and allows states normally bound to recognize marriages performed in other states to ignore the validity of those between same-sex couples.

The protests also will focus on workplace bias against gays, immigration laws that keep gay bi-national couples apart and other regulatory areas where discrimination persists.

Heather is correct - there is much work still to be done and the "family values" hate groups and Christian Taliban will fight tooth and claw to retain the special rights they currently enjoy in terms of perverting the nation's laws to punish those who do not live in accordance with their hate and fear based religious dogma.