Will Mike Pence Seek to Hide His Anti-LGBT Record Tonight?

The vice presidential debate starts in a little over an hour and one question in my mind is whether or not Donald Trump's  self prostituting stooge vice-president running mate will strive to appear falsely moderate and hide his history of homophobia and anti-LGBT bigotry.  For long time political junkies, it is common knowledge that Pence has made a career of opposing equal civil rights for LGBT Americans as most recently exemplified by his signing of Indiana's falsely named "religious freedom restoration " act ("RFRA") that brought near unanimous condemnation except from Christofacists.  As the photo above shows, Pence was surrounded by a gathering of religious extremists and hate merchants as he signed Indiana's RFRA.  A piece in Esquire looks at some of Pence's ugly record. Here are excerpts:

Digging up Mike Pence's past political work has become a sport in the brief time since he was named Donald Trump's running mate. Mainly, because he and Trump seem to be running different campaigns, despite the ticket they share.

The most recent finding is that Pence penned strong anti-LGBT letters in the 1990s during his time as head of the Indiana Policy Review. In 1993, he attacked gay leadership in the military, claiming:

Homosexuals are not as a group able bodied. They are known to carry extremely high rates of disease brought on because of the nature of their sexual practices and the promiscuity which is a hallmark of their lifestyle. 

Pence also took a very close look at sexual practices between men, arguing that was reason to exclude gay men from the ranks. He also claimed gay journalists could not remain unbiased because of the "pathological" nature of their "gaydom."
 Twenty years later, Pence signed into law Indiana's "Religious Freedom Restoration Act," which allows business owners to discriminate against LGBT employees and patrons. A year later, and he's running for vice president on Donald Trump's ticket. Good to know our civil liberties are under such vigilant protection.

Make no mistake.  Pence has opposed every advancement in LGBT rights, from supporting sodomy laws, opposing non-discrimination protections for LGBT citizens, opposing the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and, of course, opposing marriage equality.  As his signing of Indiana's RFRA shows, Pence believes in special rights for Christian extremists and, if he could, would make conservative Christianity the established religion of America.  His attitude towards the Founding Father's ideal of religious freedom for all is open contempt as shown by his historic track record.  

Obama Consults Advisers on Military Ban on Gays

I continue to be dismayed with Barack Obama's weak kneed approach to repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell ("DADT"), a policy that daily destroys the careers of honorably serving LGBT Americans for no purpose other than to salve the sensibilities of bigots and a backward thinking military brass. Now, the Associated Press is reporting that Obama is involved in worthless - can we say bullshit- consultations with Neanderthals within the military as he throws LGBT Americans under the bus. Here are some highlights from the AP:

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Barack Obama has begun consulting his top defense advisers on how to lift a ban on gays serving openly in the military.

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But the administration won't say how soon that might happen or whether a group of experts will be commissioned to study the issue in-depth, as some Democrats have suggested.

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The move enables Obama to say he's making good on his campaign promise to reverse the law, but doesn't lock him into doing so anytime soon. The carefully calculated statement, released this week by White House spokesman Tommy Vietor, leaves enough wiggle room to prevent the hot-button issue from consuming Obama's foreign policy agenda, which is dominated by ending the Iraq war and salvaging operations in Afghanistan.

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I am dismayed by this development for several reasons, one of which is that Obama plans to meet with the same group that helped engineer DADT in the first place. As a new book, Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America, reveals evidence has repeatedly been concealed or suppressed by the military when it concluded there was no rationale for the gay ban. A synopsis of the book reads as follows:

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Frank is one of the nation’s leading experts on gays in the military, and in his evenhanded and always scrupulously documented chronicle, he reveals how the ban on open gays and lesbians in the U.S. military has greatly increased discharges, hampered recruitment, and—contrary to the rationale offered by proponents of the ban—led to lower morale and cohesion within military ranks.

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Frank does not shy away from tackling controversial issues, and he presents indisputable evidence showing that gays already serve openly without causing problems, and that the policy itself is weakening the military it was supposed to protect. In addition to the moral pitfalls of the gay ban, Frank shows the practical damage it has wrought. Most recently, the discharge of valuable Arabic translators (who happen to be gay) under the current policy has left U.S. forces ill-equipped in the fight against terrorism.

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I live in an area dominated by the influence of the military and know first hand that much of the top brass is chauvinistic, bigoted, and has a dinosaur mentality. If one waits for them for innovation and an admission that change is needed, you will be waiting a long time indeed. Moreover, to progress up the ranks one needs to be an ass kisser and cow tow to the prejudices of senior officers who would be happy if nothing changed for a century or more (having an attractive wife who is good at entertaining is also an important requirement). Again, the deck is stacked against anyone speaking honestly and candidly. Yet this is the group that Obama intends to consult. Give me a break!!

No Gays, Please, We're Americans

No Gays, Please, We're Americans - That's the title of Aubrey Sarvis' latest post over at Huffingtion Post that looks at the ridiculous lengths and amounts of money expended by the U. S. military to achieve recruiting goals rather than open the ranks of the military to gays. The reality is that millions of dollars are being squandered and questionable enlistees accepted rather than - heavens, the vapors - recruit qualified openly gay men and women. Yes, I have talked about this very topic before, but Sarvis' column demonstrates the idiocy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in even more startling terms. Of course, supporters of the ban on gays - think Elaine Donnelly, Tony Perkins, James Dobson, et al - disseminate bullshit propaganda like the poster above left. What's amazing is that the anti-gay Christianists in the military are even willing to grant foreigners (typically, not one of their favored groups) citizenship rather than allow gays to serve. Here are some highlights from the column:

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[I]n the fiscal year that ended last October the Army exceeded by 517 its goal of 80,000 recruits. That's the good news. The bad news is that it failed yet again to meet its goal of 90 percent high school graduates. That's what waivers are for. You have a weight problem? No problem. The Army has been granting waivers for that -- and for serious felony convictions, for failure to meet physical and mental standards, for age (it's now 42 for new recruits) -- thousands of waivers every year -- as well as offering such enticements as whopping sign-up bonuses, as much as $40,000 for a few. Don't let me forget the free video games to simulate the "army experience."

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Now they've come up with another idea. . . . recruit legal residents here on temporary visas with skills "vital to the national interest." . . . The bait that's being dangled is a fast track to full citizenship -- six months for some. There are certain requirements -- language skills (interestingly, Spanish is not one of them) or medical training, for example. Julia Preston writes in the Times: "Recruiters expect that the temporary immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many Americans who enlist, helping the military to fill shortages in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis.

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Sadly I can't say that I'm incredulous but I can say that I marvel at the contortions our government goes through to avoid welcoming gays and lesbians openly into the armed services, whether they be skilled, highly skilled, or not skilled at all. Are we more dangerous than a Pashto-speaking kid who arrived a couple of years ago from Afghanistan?

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It is interesting that the State Department doesn't care about sexual orientation. Even more interesting, the civilian side of the Defense Department doesn't care. Private contractors don't care. In fact, they all want them and in many cases are aggressively recruiting the talented men and women who got the axe because of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and made the military weaker as a result. . . . Of course they are going back for two or three times what they were paid when in uniform.

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It is time for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen to draw the final curtain on this theater of the absurd and go up to the Hill and tell Congress exactly what's what: that nobody cares about the sexual orientation of the soldier next to them in the line of fire.

Anti-Gay Diatribe Posted at NBC Affiliate

A reader and fellow blogger tipped me off to this story which involves an anti-gay diatribe posted at NBC affiliate WOAI-TV in San Antonio. The "op-ed" encompasses all of the worse lunacy disseminated by the flat earth folks among the Christian Right - think Elaine Donnelly, Tony Perkins, James Dobson, et al - and in my view makes the case why it is the Christo-fascists, not gays who need to be banned from the military. After all, if one is a member of the military, they are supposed to be supporting the principles of the nation - like equality under the law for all - not some theocratic, Taliban like mentality based on ignorance and religious superstition. I urge all who are offended by this rant to contact WOAI-TV and let the management know your displeasure at the station providing a platform for such bigotry which ought to be confined to some knuckle-dragging church venue. Here are some highlights from the diatribe from WOAI-TV's site:

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Sodom & Gomorrah, USA Since the 1990s, the so-called gay-rights movement has targeted three of mainstream America’s most revered institutions: the military, of course, but also marriage and—amazingly—the Boy Scouts of America. This relentless campaign is aided and abetted by the Big News Media, especially with regard to the military.

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The continued high incidence of HIV among gay men—compared to the rest of the American population—is a factor in this military controversy. It’s not “homophobia.” It’s the military’s grim reality of emergency blood transfusions from fellow soldiers, of carnage on battlefields. “Many GIs are fundamentally opposed to the idea [of openly gay troops] especially due to HIV/AIDS, which takes time to appear in lab tests but can infect you upon contact,” a retired non-commissioned officer (NCO) in Army Special Forces remarked.

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The military’s ongoing prohibition against troops’ openly gay conduct, however, is entirely different. It is appropriate and necessary. The problem is obnoxious behavior that other troops should not have to tolerate on duty or off duty. Moreover, the gay-rights argument that the U.S. military should not discriminate is laughable. . . . there’s also good discrimination that prevents the recruitment—and waste of the military’s time and taxpayers’ money—of young Americans who are physically, mentally, psychologically, and/or behaviorally unfit.

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Personally, I find the op-ed author, Merrill R. Darby, obnoxious. Does that, therefore, utilizing his logic mean that I get to eliminate some of his rights as a citizen?

Another Witch Hunt: No One Asked; She Didn't Tell

I talk often about Don't Ask, Don't Tell in part because the whole policy is blatantly discriminatory and based on religious beliefs that have no place in doling out rights to citizens. In my view, the Christianist support for the policy is part of their agenda to have the laws treat gays as inferiors which helps bootstrap their anti-gay agenda. All their talk about unit cohesion and military readiness is a mere smoke screen for their real agenda of denigration. More importantly, however, I write about DADT because I know so many dedicated gays in the military who have to worry constantly about being outed by bigots and/or those who hold some sort of personal grudge or jealousy. In fact, I have clients who were outed and discharged and never even learned who had betrayed them. Other times the outing may result from meddlesome gossip. The latest example of DADT's poisonous effect is that of Amy Brian who was thrown out of the Kansas Army National Guard after a civilian co-worker said she had seen Brian kissing a woman in the checkout line at a Wal-Mart store. The fact that Brian had served in Iraq without any difficulties meant nothing and she was discharged. All this injustice so that sex obsessed homo-haters like Elaine Donnelly - who has NO military experience herself - can feel self-satisfied and superior to gays. Here are some highlights from the Capital-Journal:

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Amy Brian found out this past November just what the military's "don't ask-don't tell" policy means. No one in the military asked her if she was gay during her nine years in the Kansas Army National Guard. And she didn't tell anybody in the military she was gay.

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But in August 2008, a Kansas Army National Guard lieutenant informed Brian she was being investigated for homosexual conduct after a female civilian co-worker at the U.S. Property and Fiscal Office said she had seen Brian kissing a woman in the checkout line at a Wal-Mart store. From the moment the co-worker made her statement, Brian's performance record and the sacrifices she had made to serve her country in Iraq no longer mattered.

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She joins nearly 12,500 other lesbian, gay and bisexual service members who have been discharged by the Pentagon from 1994 through 2007. "I was not separated because of any type of misconduct but plain and simply because someone else had a problem with my sexuality," Brian said.

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All seemed to be going well until this past July, when another gay Guardsman told Brian "somebody has it in for you" and advised her to delete her MySpace page, where she had indicated she was a lesbian. Brian said the effort to remove her from the Guard started with a barrage of anonymous e-mails referencing her sexual orientation and a networking Web site where her photo was posted. The e-mails were sent to her chain of command, including the Kansas Adjutant General's Office.

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Brian's life since her military discharge has been stressful. She went without work for two months and dipped into her 401(k) savings to get by. She couldn't finish her master's degree because she had lost her educational benefits. Most of all, she has had a difficult time rectifying the discharge in her mind. She said she served with heterosexual soldiers who were found guilty of adultery, sexual harassment, and credit card fraud and received disciplinary actions instead of discharges.

An About-Face on Gay Troops

An op-ed in this morning's New York Times takes a constructive look at the best way to sell a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell - namely by showing that the policy hurts military readiness. While the author doesn't come right out and state that he formerly opposed gays in the military, the piece certainly suggests that he has changed his mind. Of course, the reality is that much has changed in the larger society in terms of gay acceptance even in Neanderthal backwaters continue to exist in parts of the country (e.g., Virginia). With the military struggling to meet enlistment requirements, increased non-high school grads being recruited and more and more enlistees having "moral waivers" due to criminal convictions, obviously rejecting educated non-criminals willing to serve their country is a very stupid policy. Here are highlights from the column:

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The lesson for President Obama is that this fight is not about rights, but about combat readiness. This is a propitious moment for seeking change: a nation at war needs all its most talented troops. Last year the principal architects of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” former Gen. Colin Powell and former Senator Sam Nunn, said it was time to “review” the policy. That’s a polite way of saying they’ve changed their minds. So have many of us who wore the uniform in 1993 and supported a policy that forced some of our fellow troops to live a lie and rejected thousands who told the truth.

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The homosexual threat to good order and discipline was behavioral, we argued, not physiological, and therefore unrelated. It was a flawed argument. The underlying fears were the same as with integration: homosexuals jeopardized unit cohesion not because of their own conduct — after all, military law and command discretion encompass behavioral breaches — but because of the perceived reaction of those xenophobic troops who didn’t want to cohabitate with people different from themselves. Today, this sounds like one of the “worn-out dogmas” President Obama identified in his inaugural speech. And it does a disservice to the ranks.

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[S]ix years of war have clarified priorities. The battlefield has its own values, starting with courage. Sexual orientation falls somewhere below musical taste. What a person chooses to do back stateside, off-duty, in his own apartment is irrelevant in a fight. For months I lived with 12 other American advisers on an Iraqi outpost. There was a single pipe shower next to a hole that masqueraded as a sewer. But the reality of combat dominated personality quirks — nobody wondered about sexual orientation.

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The other readiness argument concerns recruiting. To fill its swelling ranks, the military now grants one in five recruits waivers for disqualifications that run the gamut from attention-deficit disorder to obesity to armed robbery convictions. In a press conference last fall, Maj. Gen. Thomas Bostick, the head of Army recruiting, said the relevant question in considering such applicants was, “Does that person deserve an opportunity to serve their country?” That’s exactly right. And to choose a felon over a combat-proven veteran on the basis of sexuality is defeatist. Ask any squad leader.

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If “don’t ask, don’t tell” is rescinded, military leaders will ensure smooth compliance, as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, has said. Cohesion depends on leadership. Our troops will follow the lead of our combat-tested professionals who base their opinions on what a soldier brings to the fight, and little else.

Obama Back Peddling on DADT?

I seriously want to be an avid supporter of Barack Obama now that he's in office, but I feel like I have whiplash at times from all the back and forth he's doing - not to mention needlessly seeking GOP support. The latest possible back peddling involves Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Previously, Obama administration officials made it sound like the repeal of DADT was a sure thing. Now, Obama is prattling on telling the Pentagon and gay-rights advocates that his administration will have to study the implications for national security and enlist more support in Congress before trying to overturn the so-called "don't ask, don't tell" law and allow gays to serve openly in the military. As if we don't already know what the homophobic senior bass at the Pentagon will conclude. I'm feeling once again like perhaps LGBT voters were suckered by Obama. And as for courting GOP support, WTF is wrong with Obama. These folks despise him and want him to fail. He and the Democrats need to remember who elected them and move on without the GOP and effect the changes he was voted into office to make. Here are highlights from the Boston Globe:

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They said Obama, who pledged during the campaign to overturn the law, does not want to ask lawmakers to do so until the military has completed a comprehensive assessment of the impact that such a move would have on military discipline. Then, the president hopes to be able to make a case to members of both parties that overturning the 1993 law would be in the best interest of national security.

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At the Pentagon, officials say they have been told not to expect the administration to seek to lift the ban quickly. One senior officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press, said staff officers for Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have been told it will be several months at the earliest - possibly not even this year - until the top brass will be formally asked to weigh in on a change in policy.

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In the meantime, longtime opponents of repealing "don't ask, don't tell" are preparing to fight any efforts to allow gays to serve openly. Elaine Donnelly, [homo obsessed ice-bitch] president of the conservative Center for Military Readiness, has testified before Congress on the issue and says that open homosexuality in the military would severely weaken discipline.

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But Nathaniel Frank, a researcher at the Palm Center, a think tank at the University of California, Santa Barbara that has studied the issue, believes there is good reason for the Obama administration to move cautiously on the issue that harmed Clinton's relationship with the military. Yet Frank also said waiting too long could jeopardize the entire effort: "A delay could let opposition fester and build."

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My position is that I continue to wait for Obama to prove he did not play LGBT voters for suckers - taking our money and our votes, but then willing to throw us under the bus whenever it's expedient.

All People are Created Equal Members of One Human Family

"All People are Created Equal Members of One Human Family" are the words that appear on a popular bumper sticker here in Key West and which proclaim the "Official Philosophy of Key West, Florida." Sadly, far too many in this nation fail to embrace that philosophy and prefer to stigmatize and denigrate those who are different. In my view, one of the biggest non-economic problems facing this country is the inability and/or outright refusal of some to understand that their own prejudices and/or religious beliefs have no place in shaping the civil laws or determining which citizens are given rights and which citizens have rights denied to them. This mindset is really what is behind "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and unfortunately, this mindset is held by some in the military who forget that ours is a SECULAR society. A story in PageOneQ looks at the Christianist mindset held by some members of the military which needs to be rooted out and discredited. Here are some highlights:

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BAGHDAD, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Many U.S. troops in Iraq were overjoyed to see President Barack Obama take his oath, but some were unhappy about one thing the Democrat has promised to do: permit gay and lesbian soldiers to serve openly.

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But some of the 140,000 troops still in Iraq almost six years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein appear uneasy about the prospect. Specialist Joseph Watson, from Texas, was "pretty excited" to see America's first black president sworn in, he said, after watching Obama's inauguration on a big TV screen at the dining hall of Forward Operating Base Prosperity, in Baghdad.

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But the 30-year-old was a lot less excited about Obama's inclination to repeal the ban on gay men and women serving. "Ah, I think that might cause a lot of problems," he said. "It's a big moral issue. It's giving the OK, saying that being gay is alright. Personally, I don't think being gay is OK."

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Specialist Justin Scharan, from Washington State, battled to contain a smirk on his reddening face when asked his view. "I'm Christian, so I really don't believe it's a good thing. But if it happens, there's not much we can do," he said.

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Someone needs to educate these soldiers and remind them that their duty is to defend the USA and its Constitution, NOT intolerant religious beliefs derived from a selective reading of the Bible.

Will Obama End Don't Ask, Don't Tell?

There is much speculation as to whether or not Barack Obama will follow through with campaign pledges to end the horrendous policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" which in this area is used in a witch hunt manner to force gays from the military. Now, there are reports based on a transition team website response that Obama does in fact intend to make good on his pledge. Personally, I will believe it when I see the policy actually repealed. However, I truly hope that the policy is repealed inasmuch as it has needlessly ruined so many promising careers. The other impact of the repeal locally where we have a huge number of closeted gays in the military is to potentially overnight increase the number of openly gay residents of the area. No doubt the Pat Robertson and his fellow Christianists will not be pleased. Here are some highlights from the San Francisco Chronicle:

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President Obama will end the 15-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy that has prevented homosexual and bisexual men and women from serving openly within the U.S. military, a spokesman for the president-elect said.

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Obama said during the campaign that he opposed the policy, but since his election in November he has made statements that have been interpreted as backpedaling. On Friday, however, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, responding on the transition team's Web site to a Michigan resident who asked if the new administration planned to get rid of the policy, said: "You don't hear politicians give a one-word answer much. But it's 'Yes.' "

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"The question isn't if we do it, and the question isn't when we do it, it's how we do it," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek, whose 2006 bill to repeal the ban earned broad support among Democrats in Congress but did not move forward in the face of a near-certain veto by President Bush. "I'm going to reintroduce the bill in the next few weeks," Tauscher said. "We've got the American people behind us."

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An ABC poll in July found that three-quarters of Americans supported allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military compared to 44 percent of Americans who expressed the same support in 1993 . . . Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., both of whom backed the 1993 policy, recently called for it to be re-evaluated. John Shalikashvili, who followed Powell as chairman, has called for its repeal, as has former Georgia Republican Rep. Bob Barr, an opponent of gay rights and legal protections for gays. In an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, Barr disparaged the policy as wasting money and talent.

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More recent years have seen high-profile discharges of gay Arabic linguists and other troops whose military jobs were deemed essential in Iraq, Afghanistan and the "war on terror" - dismissals that struck many people as inexplicable, said sociologist Melissa Embser-Herbert, author of "The U.S. Military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy: A Reference Handbook." "We know of gay, lesbian, bisexual veterans who have served in combat theater, and I think that's also a big piece of it," she said. "It's a much harder sell to the general public that that person who died or lost a leg didn't deserve to be serving their country."

First "Moral" Waivers, Now Obesity Waivers, But Still No Gays

The U.S. military continues to struggle to achieve recruiting goals and having already increased the use of moral waivers to allow convicted felons to join the military, now the standards are being relaxed to allow those who are over the weight/obesity standards to enlist. Of course, LGBT Americans are still off limits regardless of who law abiding and physically fit they are so that Christianists and nut cases like Elaine Donnelly can feel superior. The excuse for the newest round off waivers is that Americans are getting more over weight rather than admit that fewer good recruits want to enlist due to the Iraq War debacle. It's pretty pathetic actually. Yet we continue to hear that there will be no immediate action to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell by the Obama administration even though DADT daily forces out qualified service members. Here are highlights from the Christian Science Monitor:

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The waistlines of America's youth are expanding, shrinking the pool of those eligible to join the US military. But an Army program is giving overweight enlistees a second chance – and helping the military with its own expansion. The recently-introduced waiver program allows enlistees who don't qualify for the military because of their weight a chance to shape up after joining. So far, the program has helped the Army make its recruiting goals in what remains a tight recruiting market.

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"We support any service who comes up with a scientifically defensible way of expanding the market [of recruits]," says Curtis Gilroy, director of accessions policy for the Pentagon. Such waivers had been studied for years but the program wasn't implemented until fiscal 2007, when it admitted about 1,500 individuals through the program (just a small slice of about 80,000 recruits).

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The Army has struggled the most with recruiting. Although it has met its active-duty goals in recent years, it has had to issue other waivers and let in more high school dropouts in order to do so. At the same time, the military is expanding through next year. The Marine Corps, which is not using the weight waiver, is growing to 202,000 and the Army will reach its "end-strength" goal of 547,000 this year. Many experts would like to see the military grow even larger to meet demands.

Pat Robertson Embarrasses Yet Again

Perennial embarrassment to the Hampton Roads area, Pat Robertson could not resist putting in his deranged two cents on the Rick Warren issue and the issue of gays in the military. It's pretty common knowledge to those dealing with a full deck - which of course excludes Pat - that there are THOUSANDS of gays currently serving in the military in this area with NO ill effects on the armed forces. Nonetheless anti-gay bigots such as Robertson always seem to obsess over those gays in the showers who might "check out" their straight compatriots. What kills me the most is that all too often the straights that worry about gays looking at them flatter themselves because NO ONE would want to look at them, naked or clothed. We gays do have our standards of male beauty which exclude these idiots. Here are highlights of Pat's latest idiocy:

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CNN went to longtime homophobe Pat Robertson to get his $.02 on the Rick Warren controversy, asking if he agreed with Tony Perkins that Warren was being used as a "pawn" by Obama.

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Robertson: "[Rick Warren] has his own agenda. I think he'll stick to it. After all, he's been asked to give an invocation. He hasn't been asked to endorse Obama."

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As a special bonus they got an answer out of him on whether or not he agrees with Colin Powell that the ban on gays in the military should be repealed.

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Robertson: "It seemed to be the unanimous decision of the military leadership that the question of open homosexuality in the barracks and the showers was not a good thing for the discipline of the troops."

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Funny how outed former Congressman Ed Schrock likewise whined about gays in the showers even while he was seeking gay hook ups via Mega Phone. Has Robertson stopped to ponder what that perhaps says about him?

A Gay Secretary of the Navy? - Oh My!!

Last week I reported that there was speculation that Obama might select William White, an openly gay man, for Secretary of the Navy. At the time, I speculated that professional homo-hater, Elaine Donnelly, would be having fainting fits and worse over the thought of a gay man in charge of all those young Navy boys. Well, Donnelly has not disappointed and AFA's faux news site, OneNewsNow, has a story quoting Donnelly - who has ZERO military experience herself - and her over wrought whining about White's potential appointment. Frankly, I see such an appointment as unlikely given Obama's embrace of Christo-fascist, Rick Warren. Here are some highlights*:

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Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, hopes president-elect Obama will not appoint the open homosexual White to such a high-level post as secretary of the Navy. "Frankly I think it would show poor judgment on his part to make this type of an appointment," she shares -- and admits White's name coming up was "something of a surprise" to friends of hers to know White, like him, and appreciate his work.

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"[But] if he is identified as [being considered for Navy secretary] and becomes a symbol of the issue of gays in the military, that could distort the debate in Congress -- and that's what I'm concerned about," laments the military watchdog. "Congress needs to look at this very objectively."

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"I don't think it ought to be a purely political appointment," she says of the Navy secretary's position. "[But] the fact that there is no military experience there would argue that he was appointed for some other reason -- and if that reason is perceived to be support for repeal of the law on gays in the military, that would be the problem."

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For those who have forgotten, when Ms. Donnelly testified before the House Armed Services Committee back earlier in the year, she came across as a total nut case - which of course she is - and was mocked on The Daily Show for her insane conduct. She has any military credentials and no credibility outside of Kool-Aid drinking circles. If Elaine Donnelly is the best that the GOP and Christianists have to offer, they should yield the field and get out of the way of DADT.

Chairman of Joint Chiefs and DADT

In this area with its huge number of military personnel, one much needed change on the gay rights front is the elimination of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a ridiculous policy that forces people to live a lie or double lives in order to protect their military careers and which allows a disgruntled service member to retaliate against those they do not like by alleging that they are gay. The policy serves no purpose other than to appease the Kool-Aid drinkers of the Christianist camp and homophobic "old school" members of the military who likely have their own unresolved issues concerning sexual orientation. A new article in the New York Times suggest that the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff may be the man to help move DADT to the garbage heap of history. Here are some highlights:

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As President-elect Barack Obama convened the first meeting of his national security advisers on Monday, there was just one person at the table whom Mr. Obama did not choose to have there: Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Admiral Mullen, who was selected by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates for a two-year term, has been on the job for a year.

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Admiral Mullen, the son of a former Hollywood press agent whose clients included Anthony Quinn and Julie Andrews, has a world view that friends say is closer to that of Mr. Obama than to President Bush.

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In preparation for his new commander in chief, Admiral Mullen is overseeing the final stages of a comprehensive military strategy review of the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan — one of four such studies in the government — to guide Mr. Obama in his first days as president. More quietly, he has also had initial conversations with his top commanders about potential changes in the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law that allows gay men and lesbians to serve in the military as long as they keep their sexual orientation secret.

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Mr. Obama has taken a strong stand against the law as a moral issue, although his team has signaled that he will not push for its repeal in the early months of his administration to avoid the kind of blowup that engulfed President Bill Clinton when he sought to lift an outright ban on gay men and lesbians in the military in his first days in office.

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Fifteen years later, Mr. Obama is of the view that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is long out of date and that it is time for gay men and lesbians to serve openly. “The president-elect’s been pretty clear that he wants to address this issue,” Admiral Mullen said in the interview. “And so I am certainly mindful that at some point in time it could come.”

Obama to Delay Action on DADT?

The Washington Times is reporting that president elect Obama's administration may delay action on the repeal of the horrid Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy until 2010, allegedly for the purpose of "reaching consensus." Since polls show that the public overwhelmingly supports a repeal of DADT, I do not understand what consensus building is needed. If the problem is with some of the homophobes in senior military positions, the answer is to tell the Neanderthals that they get on board or get out. Living in this area one sees that DADT ruins real lives and careers and that despite assurances that witch hunts do not occur, the reality is that they DO happen and all it takes is one hostile service member or one officer with a wild hare up his ass to persecute and destroy careers. Believe me, I have had it happen to clients who have been forced from the military and they have never even known for sure who was behind ending their careers. Obama needs to seriously rethink this timetable. Meanwhile, the perennial hysterical closet case windbag, Robert Knight - who needs to just go out and get himself a hot escort some night and get over his internalized homophobia, in my opinion - has his panties in a knot over a possible elimination of DADT. Here are some story highlights:

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President-elect Barack Obama will not move for months, and perhaps not until 2010, to ask Congress to end the military's decades-old ban on open homosexuals in the ranks, two people who have advised the Obama transition team on this issue say.

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Repealing the ban was an Obama campaign promise. However, Mr. Obama first wants to confer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his new political appointees at the Pentagon to reach a consensus and then present legislation to Congress, the advisers said.

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Delaying the congressional vote a year would give the White House time for consultation, but it would also let ban proponents organize and possibly sway public opinion, as they did in 1993.

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Mr. Obama's gay-ban pledge was not a major campaign issue. However, he provided a policy statement to the Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. gay rights group, pledging to repeal the exclusion and to invite back service members discharged under the law. He also said that he wants the Pentagon to school military people on how to treat gays.

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"The eradication of this policy will require more than just eliminating one statute," he told the group, in a statement posted on their Web site. "It will require the implementation of anti-harassment policies and protocols for dealing with abusive or discriminatory behavior as we transition our armed forces away from a policy of discrimination. The military must be our active partners in developing those policies and protocols."

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Ban proponents say removing the restriction would hurt recruiting by discouraging conservative, religiously oriented youths from signing up. "It's true that many in the military have looked the other way and served alongside people they know are into homosexuality," Mr. Knight said. "But that is with the ban in place. Open acceptance would change the atmosphere entirely. If fraternization is a problem now between men and women, imagine the conflicts with openly gay officers who no longer have to be reticent."

Elaine Donnelly's Last Gasp??

Like many Christianists, Elaine Donnelly of The Center for Military Readiness has made a career of sorts out of the persecution of LGBT Americans who seek to serve in the nation's military. Never mind that Donnelly has no military background herself and zero qualifications of any kind to speak with authority on the subject matter (something that is all too typical of Christianist who set up organizations with official sounding names and then give themselves lofty titles). As Pam Spaulding reports, after her disastrous performance before the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee earlier this year that brought her broad based ridicule, Donnelly is trying to stir up veterans groups to bolster her sinking ship (and soon to be non-existent job) via a secret briefing in Washington, D.C. As Pam notes, what will Donnelly do to occupy herself once DADT is repealed? Seems, however, that the secret is out and here are highlights from the Huffington Post:

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Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) has learned that The Center for Military Readiness, a right-wing activist group based in Michigan, has invited leaders of prominent veterans services organizations to a Washington, D.C. briefing on Thursday that the organization has tried to keep secret. The event, outlined in a letter obtained exclusively by PFLAG, is described as "a private, off-the-record briefing" to strategize about how to battle efforts to repeal the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual troops.

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It has long been a high-priority of Donnelly and other extremists to organize veterans services organizations to counter momentum in Congress, which has shifted to pro-repeal advocates over the past few years. As more and more veterans - such as retired Joint Chiefs Chairman John Shalikashvili and Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy - have joined efforts to topple the law, Donnelly has become increasingly desperate to find allies who will join her in advocating for the continued exclusion of lesbian and gay Americans from the armed forces. Those efforts have failed miserably.

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Thursday's briefing in Washington is a last-minute, last-ditch effort by Donnelly to try and curry some small measure of influence on Capitol Hill. To do so, she is likely to give VSO leaders misinformation, as she has done with the press and the public, in order to mislead them on the issue and attempt to win them over to her side. As polls of military personnel show that young service members and veterans are overwhelmingly comfortable and ready to serve with gay colleagues, she is attempting to reach out to the older, more conservative VSO membership to try and rally support for her cause.

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Donnelly, who has no military credentials, and is increasingly seen as nothing more than a homophobic bullhorn by Hill staff, is no doubt also trying to save face following a disastrous hearing in Congress earlier this summer.

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Our national security depends on having the best and brightest on duty, and anyone who cares about the best interests of our armed forces cares who wins. That's why so many people are campaigning to repeal this law . . . and why Elaine Donnelly is just left desperately grasping at straws.

National Review Column: DADT Needs to Go - UPDATED

UPDATE: Per live blogging by HRC, apparently, Elaine Donnelly made an ass of herself at the Congressional hearings on DADT (why am I not surprised?) and prompted a lot out outright laughter at her crazy statements. At one point, Arkansas Congressman Vic Snyder (D) admonished Donnelly for her outrageous claim that gay and lesbian servicemembers increase the risk for other soldiers contacting HIV and told her that, ironically, by her logic, she should only want to let lesbians into the military. Loud laughter all around. The woman truly needs to be in an institution under mental health care.

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Yes, it is a bit of a shock, but the National Review Online is carrying a column by one of its contributing editors slamming Don't Ask, Don't Tell ("DADT" and adamantly concluding that the policy needs to go. The piece also has some interesting statistics as to just how much the military has had to lower its standards to meet recruiting goals. Meanwhile, competent, educated, patriotic, law abiding gays have been forced out of the military. Common sense makes it clear that the policy was idiocy when adopted and has only become more stupid. It needs to go NOW. Elaine Donnelly (and closet cases like Robert Knight) will simply have to find a new group to victimize in order to have an orgasm or otherwise make herself (himself) feel better about her/his hate-filled, nasty self. Here are some highlights:

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As a House Armed Services subcommittee surely will discuss this afternoon, Pentagon officials evidently trust military inductees with felony rap sheets more than they do law-abiding gay GIs. Having relaxed academic, age, and weight restrictions to achieve recruitment goals, the Defense Department has granted “moral waivers” to criminal convicts. Simultaneously, it uses the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy to jettison gays in uniform, usually for merely disclosing their sexuality. This policy deserves a dishonorable discharge.

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Between 2006 and 2007, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently revealed, convicted felons accepted by the Marine Corps rose 68 percent, from 208 to 350. Equivalent Army admissions rocketed 105 percent, from 249 to 511. Between 2003 and 2006, U.C. Santa Barbara’s Michael D. Palm Center calculates, “106,768 individuals with serious criminal histories were admitted” to the armed forces.

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Last year, the Army . . . admitted five rape/sexual-assault convicts, two felony child molesters, two manslaughter convicts, and two felons condemned for “terrorist threats including bomb threats.”

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Conversely, expelled military personnel include Arabic linguists and intelligence specialists who help crush America’s foes in the War on Terror. “Don’t Ask” has ousted at least 58 soldiers who speak Arabic, 50 Korean, 42 Russian, 20 Chinese, nine Farsi, and eight Serbo-Croatian — all trained at the prestigious Defense Language Institute. Al-Qaeda intercepts need translation, and Uncle Sam may need people who can walk around Tehran with open ears. Yet these dedicated gay citizens now are ex-GIs.

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A December 18, 2006 Zogby poll of 545 GIs who served in Iraq and Afghanistan found that 73 percent considered themselves comfortable among gays. Also, 23 percent said they knew gay people in their units, while 45 percent believed they did. So, 68 percent of GIs confirmed or imagined that they worked with gay colleagues, with no evident clamor for their ejection. If there is a gay-fueled crisis in unit morale and cohesion, it appears to have gone undetected.

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Today’s hearing of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel will consider what to do about this policy. Here is a simple idea. “Don’t Ask” should yield to equality: Sexual orientation should be irrelevant while inappropriate sexual conduct — gay, straight, or otherwise — should be punished. Our enemies are Islamofascists who murder Americans, not gay patriots who unravel terrorist plots and introduce jihadists to Allah.

U.S. House Armed Services Committee to Hold hearing on DADT Tomorrow

I suspect that Elaine Donnelly (pictured at left) is having ultra-frenzied hissy fits and convulsions over the pending U.S. House Armed Services Committee hearings tomorrow on the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Like so many of the professional gay-haters, Ms. Donnelly has associated herself with a Christianist organization with an official sounding name - the Center for Military Readiness - to serve as a platform for her efforts to forever condemn gays to less than full citizenship status. When not trashing gays, CMR also works to deny women equal treatment in the military, preferring apparently that women be kept in the home barefoot and pregnant. Would that Ms. Donnelly would stay in her home and keep her mouth shut. Here's what Ms. Donnelly, ever the martyr, is putting out about the hearings tomorrow:

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CMR has the facts, sound principle and common sense on its side, but faces large, well-funded activist groups that are devoted to one radical goal: repeal of the 1993 law, which is constantly mislabeled "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

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Funny that the storyline being reported by USA Today differs significantly from Donnelly's whining. Here are a few highlights:

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Without this hearing, said former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman John Shalikashvili, "you will never repeal the law. It's a great idea." He is among more than 50 retired generals and admirals who have said it is time to rethink the policy. The hearing comes as the volunteer armed forces struggle to retain troops to fight two wars. Changing attitudes are seen in polls such as one by The Washington Post, published Saturday, showing that 75% favor allowing gays to serve openly, up from 44% in 1993.

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The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, has said that if elected, he would work to repeal the bar on open service — and the "don't ask" compromise designed to work around it. His Republican rival, John McCain, wants no change.

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Gay-rights advocates say they are disappointed at the Pentagon's no-show. "At a time when the military is relaxing every possible standard to attract new recruits, and at the same time is losing mission-critical specialists such as Arabic linguists, medical professionals and others, one would hope and expect that Defense Department leaders would be first in line to call on Congress to repeal the law," says Steve Ralls of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

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I guess under Ms. Donnelly's thinking, us gays have somehow recruited former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman John Shalikashvili and the more than 50 other retired generals and admirals who think DADT needs to go. Ms. Donnelly really needs to get a life and get her frigid nose out of the military's business.

Washington Post - Time to End 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

Actually, I tried to call in on a "town hall" meeting that John McCain was having yesterday for the purpose of asking him to justify his support of DADT in light of the new study released this past week. Unfortunately, I never got to ask my question and unless and until I hear McCain give a rational, cogent reason, I will assume he supports DADT because Daddy Dobson and other Christianist bigots are demanding that he do so. Living in the area that is home to the largest naval base in the world and many other military installations, it is easy to see the idiocy of DADT on a daily basis in terms of competent, patriotic military personnel who are expelled and the Gestapo atmosphere the policy engenders on the part of some gay haters. Here are highlights of why the Washington Post believes it is time for this idiotic policy to be ended:

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THE "DON'T ASK, don't tell" policy that continues the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the U.S. military was wrong when President Clinton signed it into law in 1993, and it's wrong today. The only difference between then and now is that more people are now coming around to that conclusion.

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The latest entrants -- four retired officers, each representing a branch of the military -- made their views known in the "Report of the General/Flag Officers' Study Group" released this week by the Michael D. Palm Center of the University of California at Santa Barbara. . . . Their findings reveal the devastating impact of this wrongheaded policy.

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Currently, 24 countries allow gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military. The study group highlighted the experience of Israel and Britain, which is actively recruiting gay men, lesbians and bisexuals to serve in the Royal Navy. The group's No. 1 recommendation is that Congress repeal the ban.

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And just last month, former Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), who led hearings that resulted in the disastrous plan that continues to run gay men and lesbians out of the armed forces (at least 627 in 2007; about 12,500 since 1993), said that the law should be reexamined. That reexamination should be the beginning of the end of "don't ask, don't tell."

Study: Gays Don't Undermine Military Unit Cohesion

I am sure that this new study will get Elaine Donnelly having fits and the vapors again since it flies in the face of the trash put out by her bogus organization, Center for Military Readiness, which seeks to keep gays subject to discrimination and which also seeks to limit women in the military. Of course, Ms. Donnelly has never served in the military herself, so her views are actually based on her Bible thumping religious views. Interestingly enough, the study was conducted by four retired military officers, including a three-star Air Force lieutenant general, who no doubt have far more expertise and experience than the violently homophobic Ms. Donnelly. Living in an area with large numbers of military personnel (and many, many gays who are in the military), it is painfully clear that the DADT policy accomplishes nothing other than to deprive the military of competent personnel. Hopefully, as studies like this are released it will become increasingly apparent that DADT is based on nothing other than the desire of Christianists to discriminate against gays because they do not conform to the Christianists' religious beliefs. Something that arguably is unconstitutional since it is based on discrimination based on religious belief. Here are some story highlights via the Tucson Citizen:

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WASHINGTON — Congress should repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" law because the presence of gays in the military is unlikely to undermine the ability to fight and win, according to a new study released by a California-based research center.

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"Evidence shows that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly is unlikely to pose any significant risk to morale, good order, discipline or cohesion," the officers states. To support its contention, the panel points to the British and Israeli militaries, where it says gay people serve openly without hurting the effectiveness of combat operations.

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The study was sponsored by the Michael D. Palm Center at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which said it picked the panel members to portray a bipartisan representation of the different service branches. According to its Web site, the Palm Center "is committed to keeping researchers, journalists and the general public informed of the latest developments in the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy debate." Two of the officers on the panel have endorsed Democratic candidates since leaving the military — Army Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, who supports Barack Obama, and Marine Corps Gen. Hugh Aitken, who backed Clinton in 1996.

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Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Minter Alexander, a Republican, was assigned in 1993 to a high-level panel established by the Defense Department to examine the issue of gays in the military. At one point, he signed an order that prohibited the military from asking a recruit's sexual orientation. . . . But he now believes the law should be repealed because it assumes the existence of gays in the military is disruptive to units even though cultural attitudes are changing.

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Navy Vice Adm. Jack Shanahan said he had no opinion on the issue when he joined the panel, having never confronted it in his 35-year military career. A self-described Republican who opposes the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq war, Shanahan said he was struck by the loss of personal integrity required by individuals to carry out "don't ask, don't tell." "Everyone was living a big lie — the homosexuals were trying to hide their sexual orientation and the commanders were looking the other way because they didn't want to disrupt operations by trying to enforce the law," he said.

Conservatives Urge Congress To Maintain Gays In Military Ban

Living in an area that is home of the largest naval base in the world, not to mention numerous other military posts (the Army, Navy and Airforce all have bases in Hampton Roads, and there are plenty of Marines as well), the drivel putout by Elaine Donnelly and company would be farcical if it did not harm real people. Go to ANY gay club in the area and you will see many dedicated gay military personnel who are honorably and diligently serving their country - misbeguided as it may be under the cretinous Chimperator - and causing NO problems with unit morale. Indeed, the biggest source of harm to morale in this region is the rediculous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy foisted on us by Slick Willie (as Hillary stood silently by and did nothing for the gays she claims to support). Truth be told, DADT's sole true purpose in my view is to stigmatize gays and lesbians in an effort to maintain a mindset that gays are somehow less worthy and/or love our counrty less. Someone truly needs to tell Ms. Donnelly to take an icicle and shove it up her frigid Christianist ass. Here are some highlights from 365gay.com on the Christianist manufactured controversy:

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(Washington) A conservative lobby group is urging Congress to reject legislation that would repeal "Don't Ask, Don' Tell", the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. The Military Readiness Enhancement Act which would repeal the decade old DADT has bipartisan support and hearings are expected to be held this year. Americans For The Military, part of the conservative Center for Military Readiness, is circulating a petition online to pressure members of Congress to maintain the ban.

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"Forcing a sexual agenda on the armed forces would hurt discipline and moral ... As an American I ask that you uphold this law to help to protect and preserve our military." In an online video, Center President Elaine Donnelly called for an "online army to support the troops".

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Last week the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released data showing that the Army and the Marine Corp, under pressure to increase their numbers, have sharply raised the number of recruits who have felony convictions. (story) The information, released Monday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, shows that the number of soldiers admitted to the Army with felony records jumped from 249 in 2006 to 511 in 2007. And the number of Marines with felonies rose from 208 to 350.

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Meanwhile, under DADT two people every day are dropped from the military for being gay. In the 10 years that DADT has been in force more than 10,000 personnel have been discharged as a result of thed policy, including 800 with skills deemed 'mission critical,' such as pilots, combat engineers, and linguists.

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Last month, Lawrence J. Korb,former Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan, told a joint hearing of the House Armed Services Air and Land Forces Subcommittee and the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee to "get rid of outmoded social restrictions," such as DADT. Last year former Secretary of Defense William Cohen and retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili also called for the ban to be repealed.