Army head nixes NY college visit to defuse protest

Army head nixes NY college visit to defuse protest
By The Associated Press
05.12.2010 9:07am EDT

(Oswego, NY) Army Secretary John McHugh says he won’t attend a New York state university’s commencement because a planned protest against the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule might disrupt the ceremony.

McHugh was to receive an honorary degree Saturday from the State University of New York at Oswego. He represented northern New York as a Republican congressman.

Some faculty, staff and students planned to wear buttons supporting repeal of the law that prohibits gays from serving openly in the military, and a few students planned a protest.

McHugh mistakenly suggested in March that the ban had been suspended. He quickly backtracked, saying the Army will uphold the policy as long as it’s the law.

President Barack Obama supports repeal and the Pentagon is studying whether that would harm the services.

http://www.365gay.com/news/army-head-nixes-ny-college-visit-to-defuse-protest/

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The last sentence leaves me cold. I can say I support a lot of things, but without proof it's nothing but lip service.

I'm seriously disappointed in McHugh's decision. Essentially, he's blaming us for potentially creating a "distraction" on the campus, when we were working with the campus administration to be as non-distracting as possible and still get our message across.

Also, what the article didn't bring up was that the Student Association Senate also passed a resolution (pat on the back time: which I authored) by a vote of 11-2, condemning the policy of DADT, which would have been presented to the Secretary at a private meeting between him and administrators. We had taken great pains to make sure that the commencement goes as planned, without "distraction", but still make our opinion known, as is our right. Apparently Sec. McHugh didn't feel that the process of democratic dialogue was in his best interests, so he took his ball and went home.

Oswego "But hey, we got Naomi Wolf!" Atheist

President Barack Obama supports a lot of things he has no intention of doing anything about.