Reply #61: To grow a spine and a sense of empathy, that's all [View All]

I kind of liked it better when he was just ignoring LGBT and not outright making fun of us and kicking us when we're down.

I don't expect him to turn water into wine or any other such nonsense, I don't expect him to suddenly proclaim the injustice of Prop 8 and DOMA because I never held any pretense that he would do anything about marriage equality, not with all that "God is in the mix" bullshit he talked that I've incidentally also been hearing from Talibornagain anti-gay bigots since I was 12. I had no expectations at all on that score so I'm not disappointed.

DADT is another thing entirely. Lt. Choi's situation is not "only" something for us "nuclear gays" to be upset about, it speaks to the very heart of our national security and military readiness. Why the fuck are we throwing some of our most skilled people out of the military over stupid, irrelevant bullshit like this--it was wrong, pigheaded and counterproductive at any time but especially now. We NEED people with his skill set, desperately. This entire situation just underscores how goddamn foolish this whole issue is and how damaging it is to our country.

This is not to downplay the fight for marriage equality, but even the most optimistic, 100%-faith-in-the-President person has to see that DADT has implications for all of us, LGBT or straight, beyond "just" equality for our men and women in uniform, and that Obama's inaction on this score is epic fail. Jon Stewart made the point far better than I could on TDS the other week when he said we can debate and allow torture, but treating our LGBT soldiers with dignity is a line we can't cross?