Hey, see ill be blunt, i wanna join the forces and ther is all this uncertainty about the whole gays and bi thing. am i right in saying the ban has definatly been lifed? all ive seen is Obama saying how they are making progress in america. which is fine. But in britian, i know some higher up officers have been sacked (this was ages ago), they went the courts about it, 'privacy rights') but i still can't find anything specific saying the government has lifted the ban. i no thou that many agree with the human rights campaingers as ther was a 68% for lifting the ban, but that was in 2001 and only the labour party at the time. Me personly, as long as it doesn't affect the work of the people either themselves and the people around them they should stay. the forces are looking for recruits, they are short-ish, even with the 9% increase in application forms since the begining of this yr. Alot of the people who come out in the forces has been sacked a while back but i think that now poeple are saying so wot, if they are good at there job then stay, which i obviously agrree with. but has the ban defo bin lifted??:eusa_doh:x
AFAIK the british army is ok with it. A quick google confirms my thoughts. http://www.alternet.org/blogs/world...nly_gay_soldier_on_cover_next_to_word_'pride'
In the US, the ban has not yet been lifted. Obama is working to get it lifted, but he can't just up and change it. In Britan, as I understand it, the ban has been lifted.
Actually as commander in chief of the armed forces, he can just lift it. The problem is that would cause a political shitstorm which he doesn't want to deal with when he has more pressing issues at hand. But it's a military law not a civil law, so he could have it changed with a phone call if he really wanted.
he needs the military leadership on his side. He is not going to be hasty and leave them out of the conversation by just overturning it. I dont see how it would cause disruption in the army, but it would set military leaders against obama if they were not involved with the process. New administration... we think before we act.
Well, he technically can't "just lift it." What President Obama can do is issue a stop-loss order to keep the law from being executed by the generals who report and remove gay servicemembers. However, that is only a temporary solution. Once he is out of office, the next president could just as easily lift the order and resume the law. The only way that a law can be "fixed" is for legislation to be passed through Congress that overturns the actual law itself. Just wanted to make that slight clarification. There have been several people removed from the military since President Obama took office. He has not stopped their disbarment, although he has written personal letters to several of them in consolation. He expresses that he would feel hypocritical by overriding constitutional law by not executing it and would rather pursue a permanent repeal of it instead. So it's not a good idea to rely on a presidential stop-loss allowing you to keep your position if you are outed. It's all on Congress (and that doesn't even look good still).
It is not an outright 'ban', you just cannot be open about your sexuality. I've been with the Army for almost 4 years now, and yeah, it sucks, but I keep my personal life separate from work and those I work with, and it has never really been an issue.
i dont undestand why orientation is even relevant...cuz... other militaries from other places allow it... there are like 11 who dont.. iran is one... like really.. they will allow Hiv positive to join and risk that but you cant join for a simple preferance..wth
I dont understand why he has not ordered a stop-loss though. He got like 72 members of congress basically asking him to do just that in a letter recently didnt he? Even if it does not fix the problem it gives congress time to. Its also highly symbolic. Nothing wrong with giving people hope.
President Obama's specific answer to this was said during his HRC speech shortly before the National Equality March. To paraphrase, he basically said that he "does not want to repeat the mistakes of our past administration in overruling constitutional law with personal bias, and a stop-loss would, in his opinion, be a suspension of the constitution. So, rather than finding a temporary solution that he feels abuses his power in an unpopular way, he would rather push Congress to legally repeal it." Or something like that. If I remember correctly, President Obama was a constitutional scholar of some sort in the past, so this comes as no surprise that he would hold the constitution and legislation of it to the highest standards.
Stop loss would be hugely unpopular in the military, since it would affect more than just people being discharged. Been in the Military 4 years and about to get out from your contract and return to civilian life? Nope, not under stoploss. Stoploss just recently was removed from the Army. I had several guys in my company who were due to get out in late 2007, but due to stoploss had to serve a 15 month deployment and ended up not being let out of their contracts until early 2009. It is something they do not want to bring back.
Obama said he would remove America's don't ask don't tell policy but when it came time to do so he started dragging his feet. He still keeps saying over and over that he will although refuses to give any sort of time line as to when. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/10/obama-says-he-will-end-do_n_316524.html So he is saying he will do it but hasn't actually put any work towards it. Sounds like a kid that just keeps saying "I'll clean my room later mum". I am just glad that no such policy exists in the Australian armed forces these days.
been legal in Australia since 1992. such a ridiculous issue. im sure when a gay troop is smack in the middle of trench warfare somewhere, they'll be trying to grab their fellow mans ass.
