I think it was a good move for Obama to pay a surprise holiday visit to the troops stationed in Afghanistan. Any time a president commits our troops to war, he needs to risk the danger of going there in person to see what his decision is costing Americans who serve in the armed forces.
Wouldn't it be nice if he could have also said hello and thank you to troops who are openly gay and serving as patriotic soldiers?
Obama could have, and should have, rectified this flagrant human rights and constitutional rights violation against gay tax paying citizens.
Some may say he can't win for losing.
But he needs to right this wrong and quit fucking around with it.
I know dozens of gays and lesbians who have served or are serving in the military with honor. To deny them equal rights is dishonorable and disgraceful.
It's one more thing Obama needs to do before he regains liberal and progressive support. Until then, he's no different than religious fundamentalists, tea baggers and the rest of those intolerant fools.
8 comments:
On this point, I agree completely. I believe he has the power to rectify this by executive order, pure and simple, and tell anyone annoyed by the decision to kiss his black ass.
This is a civil rights issue, and nothing less than that.
Squatlo, assuming you're a straight guy, it might be hard for you to imagine being gay and wanting to serve your country but having to live a big, fat lie to do it.
It's about a multi-decorated full bird colonel with 25 years of service being fired because someone ratted him out.
It is a civil rights issue, but on a more basic level, it hurts our feelings.
We queers believed in Obama and expected him to believe in us.
But he didn't, and so far he doesn't.
He visited the gay troops too today KZ, but they have to lie and hide their sexuality. Wrong on every level.
You however are completely correct in your assessment.
He visited the closeted gay troops.
Pity if one was killed in the line of duty and his or her partner tried to file for widow/widower's compensation.
It's fucked up and someone in power needs to man-up and do away with the bullshit.
If straight troops can keep it in their pants, it's a fucking insult to imply that gay troops cannot control their sexual impulses.
the time has come. people in this country, other than a few in the fundie far right and capt underpants, are for ending dadt. the dog and pony show in the senate has to end. capt underpants keeps moving the goalposts, and he's making a fool of himself. it's his prerogative to be an intolerant asswipe, but he doesn't have the right to take a dump on anyone else's rights.
i would rather that congress end dadt, but if they're going to keep dragging their feet to please that old fart from arizona, then obama should just sign an executive order, and let capt underpants go sit in his office and sulk.
Homophobia--the last "respectable" prejudice.
sigh
I'm amazed that the black community is one of the most strident in opposition of gay rights issues. I believe if Martin Luther King were alive today he'd be on the front lines of the gay rights fight, because it's a civil rights issue no less than any other.
And KarenZ, you obviously have more claim to this issue than a straight guy in Tennessee does, but I don't think being white kept civil rights marchers from being beaten or gassed in the 60's. This is a national shame, something history will look back on as one of our most shameful periods, no less than slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, Japanese internment camps, or anti-Islamic fervor today.
This could be resolved with one executive order, and more than any other disappointment in his term of office, this is the one thing that has saddened me most about Obama's presidency.
Wish I could have said it as well as D'cap.
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