As I've mentioned, I spent last week cleaning up and clearing out. In the process, I found my HOPE poster from last fall. You know the one I'm talking about; all of us die hard Obama lovers had them. Jo and I displayed Hope in our front foyer throughout the election, and kept our Hope displayed right up until we moved.
Well, here we are. Almost one year, post election and Hope has just been collecting dust in the closet. I can't help but notice the parallels for the Hope we had for this new and different presidency. And the irony that my hope is In the Closet with the rest of me.
Read "Jones on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Obama “has an awful lot on his desk”" on LezGetReal.
10/5/09-by Isabell James
Gay civil rights for the United States military is just another thing on the President’s desk.
Yesterday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” James Jones, President Obama’s national security advisor, said Obama “has an awful lot on his desk. I know this is an issue [Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell] that he intends to take on at the appropriate time. And he has already signaled that to the Defense Department. The Defense Department is doing the things it has to do to prepare, but at the right time, I’m sure the president will take it on.”
Jones indicated the President will focus “at the right time” on how to overturn the “don’t ask, don’t tell” ban on gays serving openly in the military. “I don’t think it’s going to be – it’s not years, but I think it will be teed up appropriately,” James Jones said.
Well, us gays will just wait for the President to put on his Sunday jeans and “tee off” on the gay rights issue he seemed so boisterous about during last year’s election.
Is there any light in this dark tunnel? Yes. Thank you Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid(D-Nev.) In a letter written on September 24th, Reid asked Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates for a review of the cases of two U.S. officers who were discharged from the military for being gay. Reid said, “At a time when we are fighting two wars, I do not believe we can afford to discharge any qualified individual who is willing to serve our country.”
The House is considering legislation to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” and allow people who have been discharged under the policy to rejoin the military. Obama supported repealing the law throughout his campaign; however, action is not expected until early 2010. The White House has said it will not stop the military from dismissing gays and lesbians who acknowledge their sexuality.
634 members of the military were discharged for being gay in 2008, according to an Aug. 14 congressional report. Imagine if they lost all 65,000 gay servicemembers in the next couple of years? I bet that would be a pretty big item on Barack’s desk.
