Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a conundrum for the President. He claims that he is opposed to it but then his administration is fighting the court orders to end it. President Obama
said to an audience in an MTV Town Hall:
"Congress explicitly passed a law that took away power of the executive branch to end this policy unilaterally," he said. It is "not a situation where with a stroke of the pen I can end this policy."
But many lgbts want it to end now, period.
On the risk of sounding wishy-washy, I can see both sides.
The policy is wrong, point blank. But it affects a lot of people. Now I know polls say that many in the military and in the country don't have a problem with lgbts serving openly, but to me, the trick IS how the policy is done away with.
Something that will affect the military on a complex level cannot be taken care of with a simple stroke of a pen. I don't care if Obama is the president. If he does it this way or in the courts rather than through Congress, it could create a resentment of the lgbt community and a backlash
And backlashes seem to be something that the lgbt community never plan for. I remember when
Lawrence vs. Texas was struck down. The lgbt community was up in a celebration. We had finally knocked the sodomy laws down after years of having them over our heads as sort of a "Sword of Damocles."
"That will show people that we aren't inferior," we seemed to say.
And the religious right came back and said "you wanna bet."
By partly using a statement by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia about how the elimination of the sodomy laws would cause gay marriages, the religious right galvanized themselves and the nation into an anti-gay marriage fervor that whipped us like government mules.
And we are still feeling the effects of that.
It's definitely something for folks to remember in lieu of the "we want it and we want it NOW" attitude.
On the other hand, again the policy is wrong. If lgbts want to serve openly, they should be able to and I understand totally the point of view of lgbts who are angry at the President over this. Obama did promise to end Don't Ask, Don't Tell. And you shouldn't have to wait on rights which should already be yours. You don't feel like you are being treated like a human being. It takes away your dignity and self esteem.
So I am going to pray on the matter.
Meanwhile, if you feel so inclined, please tell me what you think about what's going on.
BUT don't be rude.
