Opportunity to Stop the Loss

In a time of military conflict, fears of the next 9/11, and large amounts of loss of life in relation to this conflict, our biggest threat to national security has been made clear over seventeen years ago.  The continuation of this threat is clear as all of our GOP and certain Democratic lawmakers seem to ignore the obvious fact that it is false.  This false threat is, as you can guess, is allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in our military.

When the Democrats took control in the sweeping victory that was the 2008 presidential election, they had the opportunity to move swiftly on a major issue that affects not only the gay and lesbian soldiers serving, but their families, as well.  President Obama made five promises to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community.  Of these promises, he has kept one and broken one.  Forty-percent of these promises have stalled because of the unlikely chance they will be put up to a vote before the end of the lame duck session, before the GOP takes control of the House and begin their tirade of oppression once more.  That leaves just one promise left to keep, the promise Obama made to the LGBT community and soldiers serving in our military:  to repeal the ineffective, demeaning, wasteful, and demoralizing policy dubbed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT).

The President has asked the LGBT community and soldiers for patience to remove this policy at a less disruptive pace, now look where our patience got us.  This policy is not still in effect because of combat effectiveness or military readiness, it is in effect because of bigots and liars, like John McCain, the rest of the GOP lawmakers, and even some of the self-titled Democratic lawmakers, who are anti-gay to the core.  I use the title “lawmaker” because the majority of the public, conservative democrats and republicans included, agree with the Joint Chiefs of Staff that this policy is discriminatory, a waste of money and should become part of our shameful history, not our shameful present.  For a party elected on the platform of representing all Americans, why is that at least 70% of these GOP lawmakers failed to vote in favor of repeal?  The simple answer:  these lawmakers are anti-gay bigots who are too scared to own up to that fact and instead choose to hide behind the veil of religion!

President Obama knew this, as he was a lawmaker fighting for LGBT rights before he became the leader of the “Free” World.  This fact is both saddening and astounding because of the slow-as-molasses-don’t-worry-we’ll-get-to-it approach he and the Democratic leadership decided to take.  What is more astounding is how Obama was handed an excellent opportunity to end this policy as early as September of this year by issuing a stop-loss clause to kill the discriminatory policy after a federal judge ruled it unconstitutional.  Instead, our fearless leader opted to shrivel like a coward, bend to the bigoted will of the anti-gay lawmakers, and challenge the ruling after the issuance of an injunction.  Although the Obama administration has won an indefinite stay on the injunction while it prepares to appeal the ruling that stated DADT unconstitutional, it is still not too late.  I do not expect there to be enough time to vote on DADT repeal with the timeframe Harry Reid has set for this lame duck, nor do I expect the Senate to allow the lame duck to end without passing the 2011 NDAA.  This means that DADT repeal language will more than likely be stripped from the bill.

It is still not too late to drop the appeal and let the ruling stand, which I doubt the Obama administration will.  President Obama, you are dropping the ball on your gay and lesbian constituents and the polls have proven that!  It is time for a good deed, Mr. President; it is time to deliver before you lose the constituency forever.  Mr. President, this is not an opportunity lost, but merely an opportunity to stop the unnecessary loss.