Between sips of an iced coffee, Airman 1st Class Leslie Wilson, a 60th Dental Squadron dental technician here, talks about her life.
She talks about her childhood in Tennessee, going to college on a soccer scholarship and following in her father’s footsteps by joining the military.
However, she also discusses candidly that she is a lesbian, Read more
Buzzfeed obtained a video of Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Robert Papp speaking to US Coast Guard Academy cadets on January 8th. In it, he recounts a meeting with President Obama in 2010, in which the President told the “5 service chiefs” to support his plan for repeal of the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” — or get out:
Papp revealed that Obama was unwilling to compromise with service leaders over DADT during a meeting in 2010. “We were called into the Oval Office and President Obama looked all five service chiefs in the eye and said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ I cannot divulge everything he said to us, that’s private communications within the Oval Office, but if we didn’t agree with it — if any of us didn’t agree with it — we all had the opportunity to resign our commissions and go do other things,” he said.
The context of the answer was a question from cadets about Read more
The Department of Defense “studied” the impact of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” by performing a much-contested survey of US troops in 2010. While the effort was reportedly intended to gather data and draw conclusions based upon that data, there were accusations at the time its actual purpose was to justify repeal — not assess its impact.
The Washington Post recently revived the DADT debate when it wrote about one of the two co-chairs of the survey, then-DoD General Counsel Jeh Johnson, in an article entitled “Four straight black men who led on gay rights.” The article seemed to allude Read more
Under Secretary of the Air Force Eric Fanning, who was Acting Secretary for a few months, recently gave an interview for a homosexual ‘special report’ of the National Journal in which he discussed the effects of repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on the military. Largely, he continued his prior statements that while he thought the policies were bad, repeal was apparently met with a collective shrug.
He did have one interesting comment, however, in which he said the federal Defense of Marriage Act actually made repeal of DADT easier: Read more
In a Unitarian Universalist article entitled “End of DOMA brings new openness for military chaplains,” a chaplain and his endorser recently spoke about the ability to be “more open” now that DADT has been repealed:
[Unitarian Universalist] chaplains are now able to more easily support soldiers who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual and to help provide services for them and their families…
“The big difference is in my ability to be much more open myself about what my stance is,” said Chaplain (Captain) George Tyger, an active duty UU military chaplain. “As a UU minister, I represent the Unitarian Universalist Association in the military. Before DADT went down, I had to tiptoe around the issue, and now I don’t. I can say, ‘This is how I feel; I’m 100 percent affirming.’”
It’s an interesting highlight in an era in which most people seem to assume military chaplains universally have a problem with homosexuality.
By the same token, its no small irony that while a “100% affirming” military chaplain now has the confidence to boldly proclaim his support for homosexuality, non-affirming chaplains have reportedly had their confidence Read more
Update: The theme continued at the Air Force Times nearly three weeks later.
The US Navy recently announced (on its continuously updated DADT page) that it had coordinated with Japan to understand that “spouse” in the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) would cover a “same-sex” couple. (Published at the Washington Post, repeated at Stars and Stripes.) As a result,
The Navy [said] in a notice to personnel that it had added Japan to its list of overseas assignments for same-sex couples…The Navy has made only Japan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, available
as overseas assignments for gay couples.
The specifics of that announcement were largely missed or simply viewed as another “victory” by homosexual advocacy groups, including the American Military Partner Association, which
described the Navy’s decision as “welcome news” but noted that the armed forces do not treat same-sex spouses equally at many duty stations abroad.
Oddly, neither the AMPA nor anyone else seems to have noted this “special treatment” for homosexuals in assignments was never supposed to happen.
The Pentagon’s DADT repeal report Read more
A writer at the Engage Family Minute blog begins his post with an appropriate question:
How exactly is discrimination defined, and what constitutes discrimination?
As has been noted here before (“Of Bullies, Bigots, Homophobes: The Changing American Vocabulary“), it is not uncommon for people or groups to appropriate terminology — or even twist semantics — to support their cause. Prior discussions have already covered several: homophobe, bigot, bully, tolerance, and Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s use of “rape”.
“Discrimination” was also briefly mentioned, though it has again surfaced in incorrect usage (at least by its traditional definition). In short, it bears reminding that in order to discriminate, one has to act. By themselves, thoughts, beliefs, and words cannot be discriminatory — again, by definition.
An example: The Catholic Church discriminates when Read more
As has been repeatedly highlighted in the press, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was a “non-event” (both positively and negatively). So much so, in fact, that news stories continue to be generated highlighting its non-impact to the military.
The Air Force produced a full story on SSgt Anthony Loverde, who recently re-entered the Air Force after having been discharged under DADT 2008.
He went to the local recruiting office and asked about getting back in…
“They said no,” Loverde said.
The reasons ranged from his age, to his Read more