There are some 66,000 people ready to be kicked out of America’s armed forces under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the president will be excited to know!
A new survey from UCLA’s Williams Institute shows a slight uptick in LGBTs currently serving; about 13,000 are active duty, with 53,000 serving in the reserves or National Guard. That’s about 2 percent of the military’s entire line up. Maybe he will bring this up in tonight’s State of the Union address! You know, next to whatever crap he might spew about “reviewing” the policy to find ways to “change” it.
rf
Not to be snarky or uninformed (which I am) but do people in the military really check the box saying they’re gay? even on anonymous surveys? Sitting at home not serving my country, I have to think if 1000 of them got up and told the Pres to kick them out, we might get somewhere on DADT.
Brian NJ
Didn’t you hear??? Obama has better things to do than to not totally disgrace himself and his office by throwing our American soldiers on the street every month. And treating veterans like human beings is too “controversial” for our dear Democratic Party.
Michael W.
@rf: I’ve been arguing for years on here that gay service men and women have the power to end DADT simply by exposing their sexuality in mass numbers. The military can’t afford to get rid of them all. But no, we need to rely on Obama and Nancy Pelosi to rescue us.
See, there’s too many Uncle Tom “straight acting” gays serving who are perfectly fine with the policy and would gladly keep their sexuality under wraps while letting their brothers and sisters hang out to dry. Therefore the plan wouldn’t work. Gays on blogs and message boards who’ve never served care more about the policy than they do.
sweetdog
CNN and FNC had been saying yesterday that POTUS will address the subject of DADT in his SOTU. I havent’ heard anything else about it since yesterday. Do you really think he is going to mention it at all? Maybe he will give a “shout out” to all the LGBT people who voted for him because they believed he was going to do something about DADT and DOM. Then again, maybe he won’t. I’m inclined to think he won’t.
Joe
You guys really dont get it. My partner has been in the military for 9 years, and when you are on the inside, its a whole seperate issue. No, the soldiers cannot just up and say “I’m gay now try and kick me out.” Because the military really doesn’t care. They WILL kick them out. No matter the numbers! They will just train somebody to take their place. This is obvious in them kicking out dozens of Arabic translators. You dont really see, or understand the devastating effects of this policy until you live under it. My partner and I have to be very careful in public. We can hardly walk together, and whenever he runs into one of his friends that doesn’t know, I have to keep walking and linger in the distance. But I dont think Obama will do anything about it soon. I hope he will, but I dont think he will. Althouth its all very hippocritical. He goes on and on about unemployment, when he is the one firing these soldiers. Wanna stop unemployment, even in the smallest of ways, then end DODT.
rf
@Joe: I have to assume that he new about DADT and the policy against gays serving when he joined the military. So what you are saying is that he feels more comfortable potentially dying in Iraq than living as who he really is. I honestly don’t mean to be insensitive because I can understand your views, but I think we all, myself included, need to grow a set of balls. My state senator just stood up and told me (and was on the front page of Queerty) that I’m worthless. We are second class citizens in every way. And nothing is going to change unless we make it happen. Blacks and women did not get a free ride, why should we think we will?
Joe
When he joined the military, he had not come out to anybody, not even himself. He was straight when he joined actually, and was engaged to a woman at one point in time. It was only after she cheated on him and he left her that he did the soul searching he needed to do and found himself, thankfully. I never said I expected a free ride, but ultimately the power does rest with Obama and Congress to repeal this law, as they are this nations governing bodies. I have written to my representatives and senators, and even the White House, sometimes to be told they want to repeal the law, sometimes to be told they will go with whatever the joint cheifs go with, and other times, because I live in the south, that they are sorry and will never vote to repeal DADT because it goes against what they believe.