Tag Archives: DADT

Santorum Surges to Third Place, Promises to Annul Gay Marriages

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Republican Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum has risen to third place in Iowa polls. Now with 16% of the projected votes, which is a far cry of where he was previously, Santorum’s surge in Iowa has me deeply concerned.

First of all, I think he’s an idiot as I’ve claimed here, here, and here, but I’m concerned for more than just his lack of an intelligent quotient. Santorum has recently courted several “evangelical leaders within [Iowa]” and is using the standard hot topics of same sex marriage, abortion, and the threat of Islam  to garner favor with the 99 counties in Iowa.

Santorum isn’t dealing with important issues such as the economic crisis, health care, education, and rising unemployment. Instead, he has stoked the flames of fear many social conservatives have–that the gays will destroy traditional marriage, babies will be haphazardly aborted, and that Islam will take over our borders.

While I would normally scoff at platforms such as this, Santorum appears to be stirring up the pot enough in Iowa to rise in the polls. His tactic of fear and ignorance is working!

Santorum still has a lot of ground to cover to take over Romney and Paul, who are currently tied for first, but he’s gaining some steam.

If he does win the nomination, he not only plans to repeal DADT but to annul gay marriages that are currently legal in some states. ThinkProgress reported on this as well as on an interview between MSNBC’s Chuck Todd and Santorum on the subject of gay marriage. During the interview Santorum had this to say, “I think marriage has to be one thing for everybody. We can’t have 50 different marriage laws in this country, you have to have one marriage law.” When asked if he would make same-sex couples, who were currently married according to their state’s laws, get divorced, he responded by saying, “their marriage would be invalid.”

I wonder what happened to the GOP’s desire to limit the role of the federal government in a person’s private life and for acknowledging the rights of the states? I guess Santorum doesn’t buy into those Republican tenets, does he?

DADT Repeal: One Year Later

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It’s been a  year since President Obama officially signed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and guess what? The world hasn’t ended. Terrorists haven’t taken over America. Soldiers aren’t being harassed in the showers. Battle-ready effectiveness hasn’t decreased.

In fact, as reported by ThinkProgress, “leaders who opposed the change are embracing it and gay servicemembers are reporting acceptance within the ranks.”

It seems that many politicians and nay-sayers didn’t have faith in the men and women who serve our country. I guess they incorrectly assumed that our soldiers were just as bigoted as they were. Epic fail for them!

NBC Nightly News also did a piece on the DADT repeal last night. Based on the video, I say our soldiers are thriving.

Ron Paul: “Government Has No Business in Private Lives”

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Ron Paul, Republican Presidential hopeful, recently gave an interview to Iowa State Daily, where the topics of gay rights and gays in the military came up.

When asked about gay rights, Paul had this to say:

You know I just, I don’t think of people in little groups like that. I don’t think of people as ‘gay’ here and ‘black people’ there, or ‘women’ over here…Everybody is an individual person and everybody has the same rights as anyone else. The government has no business in your private life, you know, so if one person is allowed to do something so should everyone else. The whole gay marriage issue is a private affair and the federal government has no say.”

It’s nice to hear a Presidential candidate (even if he’s not the most popular) go on record stating that all people, including homosexuals, have the right to do what they please in their private lives. Paul is keenly aware that an individual’s private life should not be subject to federal government scrutiny or legislation. Labels based on sexuality, race, and gender have no meaning when it comes to governmental rule.

Amen!

When asked about how he would address gays in the military if he became president, Paul thoughtfully made the following reply:

Well, like I said, everybody has the same rights as everybody else, so homosexuals in the military isn’t a problem. It’s only if they’re doing things they shouldn’t be, if they’re disruptive. But there’s … men and women getting into trouble with each other too. And there’s a lot more heterosexuals in the military, so logically they’re causing more trouble than gays. So yes, you just have the same rules for everybody and treat them all the same.”

Once again, Paul sees the situation for what it is. Gay service members make up a fraction of the military; homosexuals are a minority, after all. Therefore, the problems in the military can’t be squarely blamed on a DADT repeal. It’s just as ridiculous to say that gay marriage threatens traditional marriage when heterosexuals alone have caused the divorce rate to skyrocket.

Unlike Santorum, who continues to spout crap, crap, and more crap or Cain who’s also known for making some idiotic claims, Paul’s words show that his decisions are not based on prejudice or hate. That’s the kind of individual who should be leading the nation because he will govern for every citizen, not just those who are the most like him.

via Towleroad

Rick Santorum Supports Reinstating DADT & Ex-Gay Therapy

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Republican Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum once again proved today how un-electable he is.

During an interview this morning on FOX news, Santorum regurgitated his support for the reinstatement of DADT, which he expressed during the GOP debate where a soldier was booed. (Click here to read that post).

Santorum believes that if gays are allowed to serve openly in the military then our “recruitment and retention” will decrease. He makes these claims despite the reports that the majority of service members have no issue working alongside homosexual soldiers. Once again, a candidate chooses to ignore the facts and instead pushes an agenda fueled by hate and prejudice. Most soldiers don’t care who sleeps with who anymore than most people care who their colleague sleeps with at home. Everyone’s private life is just that–private. The government needs to stop caring what happens in the privacy of an individual’s home and refrain from making laws, which attempt to govern any individual’s pursuit of personal happiness.

To add insult to injury, however, Santorum’s rhetoric is strikingly similar to the arguments used in the 1940’s when racial integration became a problem for the military. Candidates against integration worried about “close sleeping quarters” and “showers” just as Santorum does. Homosexuality isn’t a communicable disease anymore than being Black is. If that was the case, I’d be sneezing all over everyone in Washington! Then, those conservative politicians would not only be gay but Latino too! (I bet they’d really hate that!)

Still, Santorum’s frothing at the mouth knows no bounds! For Santorum, homosexuality is a choice, despite the many psychological studies conducted to combat this belief. (Once again, science and cold hard data mean little when faced with ignorance). To make matters worse, Santorum supports ex-gay therapy saying that “There are all sorts of studies out there that suggest just the contrary, and there are people who were gay and lived the gay lifestyle and aren’t anymore. I don’t think that’s the case with anyone who’s black.”

Apparently, Santorum forgets there was a time when Blacks used to bleach their skin to try and blend in. The hate they felt from the nation drove those American citizens to feel as if they had to change their skin color something that is really unalterable in order to fit in. As ridiculous as trying to lighten one’s skin tone seems to be now, that is the same nonsense ex-gay conversion spouts.

Ex-gay conversion doesn’t work, according to the APA, but once again, who cares about the facts, when an argument is based on hate, fear, and ignorance? All of those are a wonderful platform for a presidential candidacy, aren’t they?

 

Ann Coulter: It’s Okay to Boo a Soldier

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No doubt, many of you have already heard about the audience, who booed a gay soldier, at the GOP debate. The soldier in question, Stephen Hill, serves in Iraq and asked the panel if, elected president, they “plan[ned] to circumvent the progress that has been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military?” At this point, the booing commenced.

I’ve been angry about this for days, so I couldn’t write about it right away. I needed time to cool down and process.

Then, I read today on Towleroad (another blog site) about Ann Coulter (one of my least favorite people in the world). She is actually praising the booing of the soldier. Click here if you can stomach reading her column.

According to La Coulter: “It is beyond absurd to demand that Republican candidates pledge not to consider altering a recent rule change overturning a military policy that had been in effect from the beginning of warfare until the last few weeks of the 111th Congress. Of course there was booing for that!”

In her column, she “claims” the booing was not in response to the soldier being gay but about him not wanting a republican presidential administration to overturn the repeal of DADT. I believe that as much as I believe that one day Ann Coulter will ride in a parade car with RuPaul as Grand Marshall of the NYC gay pride parade in 2012.

Sorry, Ann, but some of us “liberal cry babies” don’t buy the bull your shoveling. Heap that pile of manure over on FOX News, thanks.

However, as a logical person I will concede the possibility that the disrespectful drove of conservatives might have also been booing the question as much as the soldier. And in this country (the one that soldiers gay and straight fight for), Freedom of Speech is one of our most cherished rights–even in the form of scorn at a persecuted minority.

But these people, the ones who booed Hill, these would be the same people to spout if YOU DON’T SUPPORT THE TROOPS, YOU DON’T SUPPORT AMERICA!

Who’s not supporting the troops or America now? That would be you, you bunch of booing boobs, with Ann Coulter, the biggest boob of them all, riding the train of discord all the way to the bank.

It’s preposterous to think gay soldiers are ineffective (or lead to the uprising of a Fourth Reich, according to Ann’s comment in her column) for the sole reason that they sleep with someone of the same gender! Sex, whether gay or straight, doesn’t lead to decreased morale or destroyed unit cohesion. Sex, for most people I know, only increases morale and unity. But only if you do it right. If you believe otherwise (and have to boo about it), maybe it’s sexual frustration more than anything else. Actually, that would explain a lot about Ann Coulter’s bad mood all these years!

But I digress. Sex has been occurring in the military since “the beginning of warfare” to quote Coulter. Whether you want to believe it or not, gays have been in the military since the beginning. They are just tired of having to hide who they are. So when Coulter says “that not talking about your sex life with your co-workers is not lying about who you are. In fact, many Americans manage quite easily to go days and days without talking about their sex lives with co-workers,” she is once again not seeing the forest for the trees. Admitting your a homosexual is not talking about your sex life. Is your colleague at work talking about his/her sex life when that person announces that he/she is getting married? Of course not! Talking about sex at work, whether it’s on a military base or at a small business, is inappropriate, whether or not you’re gay or straight. Admitting who you love isn’t about sex or about being inappropriate; it’s about being proud of who you love and who you are! It’s what makes us human.

Apparently, that’s not a lesson Ann Coulter or her booing friends have learned.

And, finally, in regards to Ann’s last comment that the “hysterical sobbing” of liberals on the subject of the audience booing the gay soldier “blocks reason,” I shall only say this. We aren’t sobbing; we are simply angry, and you’re just upset because you can’t keep us in the closet anymore.

Now dry you’re eyes and stopping crying about that!

DADT Repealed 9/20/2011

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Finally, after too many years of hiding and living in secret, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is over. A letter distributed to troops today made the repeal official to soldiers on American soil and abroad. (click here to read the letter as reported in The Washington Post).

The letter, signed by Raymond T. Odiemo, General of the United States Army; Raymond F. Chandler III, Sergeant Major of the Army; and Jeff M. McHugh, Secretary of the Army, states that “The law is repealed” and “from this day forward, gay and lesbian Soldiers may serve in our Army with the dignity and respect they deserve.”

It’s about time! Dignity and respect have long been denied to our gay brothers and sisters in the military. They have proudly served their country, fulfilling integral, and sometimes dangerous, roles that have kept our country safe from those who would do us harm. And at the end of the day, when their bodies were tired, bruised, and/or battered, they were denied a basic comfort most everyone else, including me, takes for granted.

They couldn’t really go home. Not to the home that we think about, where our spouse waits to make the horrors of the day better with a kind word or a soothing touch. Their homes were a charade they created to keep their military careers safe, so they could return to the front lines and bleed for us again while we slept safely next to our significant other.

That will no longer be the case.

Now, they can truly go home after an awful day and receive the love and support we all take for granted because their homes will no longer be shrouded in secrecy or fear.

That will, no doubt, be one of the greatest gifts they ever received.