military

Was Obama’s Gay Powwow a ‘Political’ Event? The Air Force Sure Thought So

Yesterday, Barack Obama invited some friends over to the White House. There were folks like Rea Carey from National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Wilson Cruz, from Hollywood. And Air Force Lt. Colonel Victor Fehrenbach, who is in the middle of being kicked out of the military ’cause he gets it on with dudes. (Like Fehrenbach, the National Guard’s First Lt. Dan Choi is also being kicked out — in fact, Choi is facing his review panel today.)

So how did Obama’s words for the gays yesterday sit with the very folks that are affected by the still-on-the-books, still-not-repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy?

Not so well, since Obama, as expected, offered nothing to save those soldiers whose “clocks are ticking,” but Fehrenbach says “it did give me a new sense of hope.” Not giving him such hope? The Air Force demanding Fehrenbach not wear his uniform to the White House, because they dubbed yesterday’s gathering as a “political” event.

Meeting with your commander-in-chief is a political event? Well, the argument could go both ways, but the Air Force’s call does lend weight to the argument that Obama’s White House get together was, in fact, no more than a greasing of Gay Inc.’s wheels. And that, friends, certainly is political.

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