Admiral Mike Mullen asks Congress to delay repealing ban on gays in military

Yeah well he can go screw himself.

 

Isn't 17 years enough of a fucking delay?

Asshole.

 

I admit my understanding of this particular policy may be a bit off, and thus welcome anyone to enlighten me, but shouldn't we be mad at Bill Clinton for signing his name to this in the first place? I recall him being against this sort of thing yet still giving it the go ahead. Why not be mad at the source rather then the people parading about it today?

Regardless, I don't understand why there would need to be a review. Stop punishing people for saying "I'm gay", and everything will go on as normal, only people are no longer oppressed. Funny this sort of discrimination the government would be quick to condemn in any other outlet but in it's own business it seems less inclined.

 

The problem is that Don't Ask Don't Tell was a compromise to begin with. It was never meant to be long-term. I know that Bill Clinton is against it, so yeah. It's just a bullshit deal all around. No one wants it anymore.

 

Funny, compromising on human rights never seems to work out well.

 

which makes you wonder why the military is fighting tooth and nail for it. I mean what purpose does it serve, how does it help america defend itself? really?

 

I may be completely misreading the current arguments and this could be total nonsense, but my understanding is that the top brass isn't necessarily arguing that DADT should stay in effect because they want to keep gays out of the military but rather that they want to figure out all of the ramifications of repealing DADT and how to deal with them before they are actually forced to allow openly gay people in.

If that is the actual reasoning, then it is a legitimate reason to delay the repeal. There are a lot of questions that come up as soon as you repeal DADT that need answers like on base housing of same sex partners, partner benefits, gay-straight cohabitation in barracks, etc. Of those three examples, none are easily answered. As far as i know, on base housing and benefits are only extended to spouses, which the federal government is barred from recognizing for same-sex couples. And regardless of your stance on barracks arrangements, the fact that it usually starts 2-3 pages of comments on these forums when it's brought up makes it quite clear that it's not an easy question to answer.

And even after those are answered, they will require procedural changes which like it or not, will take time to implement. They also need to handle education of personal on those matters as well as expanding harassment and tolerance guidelines. They'll need to implement rules and procedures for incidents that come up because of this. While it may be an obvious act of harassment and should be punished accordingly, simply because it’s new will cause confusion in how to deal with it.

You just need to look at the issues that cropped up when the military was desegregated along race lines to see what can happen. And it is worthwhile to explore how to eliminate such issues this time and not repeat history. It may be naive and overly optimistic of me to think this is the real reason behind the push to delay until after the report is finished, but i really dislike being cynical of everything involving gay rights all the time and hope for once level heads are prevailing.

 

As I understand it, with this "compromise" the Pentagon gets to wait until they finish their "study" of how to implement the repeal of DADT before they actually sign-off on it. The military still gets their way, and DADT is still going to exist until at least December. The complaining from military leaders over this "compromise" has gotten completely ridiculous.

 

As I understand it, DADT was a compromise. The prior policy had encouraged asking and active investigations into homosexual conduct. You have to remember that when DADT was enacted, homosexual behavior was illegal in a number of states and even the tacit approval DADT granted was a tough sell. Also, what would being mad at Clinton do now? He's not the one currently pushing for it's continued existence. It'd be a waste of breath.

 

The confusing thing is that Congress is voting on whether to overturn DADT PENDING the Pentagon review. Meaning "once the Pentagon gives a thumbs up, we'll say do it". To which the Pentagon has said "Please don't vote on this until we finish the review." Which doesn't make any sense, but there you be.

In case you missed it, the Pentagon has said its review is due some time in December. Congressional elections, during which the Republicans will no doubt strengthen their numbers (and may in fact retake both houses of Congress), take place in November. This is almost certainly not a coincidence.

Lex