LGBT POV

… The irony of the placement in the speech did not escape me. President Obama, in the same breath, was proposing to allow openly LGBT people to serve their country and to make sure women get fair pay for a day’s work. Why is either of these things even an issue? And why are we still talking about them in major policy speeches?

The simple answer is simple: no matter what promises are made, no matter how far our society advances to accept the concept of women in the workplace and LGBT folks in the military, in practice, structure, and – in the case of LGBT service members – the law, inequality still remains.”…

Scottish poet Sir Walter Scott once wrote: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” Please – I beseech you – try to follow the logic of this Family Research Council minister who tries to make it OK to hate gays, as long as it’s done with Christian love. Pray on it, in fact. FRC sends out regular missives to their Christian “Prayer Warriors” specifying what “targets” to pray at each week. These guys are making it really, really hard to believe that old Sunday School song, “Jesus loves me, this I know – for the Bible tells me so.” You decide.

Dear Praying Friends,

Opposing the radical homosexual rights agenda is distasteful to Bible-believing Christians and leaders. Eager to follow the law of love, they sometimes sympathize with those who accuse opponents of homosexual rights as guilty of “hate.” These believers prefer to hold their tongues regarding this and other cultural sins that Scripture condemns, preferring to preach “grace.” But without God’s law there is no grace. And God’s warnings to society must not be ignored. We genuinely love those caught in this and other aberrant sinful addictions, but we cannot cease to warn society of the consequences of approving such behaviors. We must neither keep silent, nor compromise, nor succumb to those who seek to “normalize” homosexuality. The consequences are simply too great. Bible-believing Christians are motivated by love, not hate. But in a culture in which speaking the truth in love on such matters is viewed as “hate,” we must risk the accusation and speak the truth in love, accompanied by much prayer (see Mt 10:12-42; Eph 6:1-20; 2 Tim 2:24-4:5).

Please click inside for more on the prayer.

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Don't ask, don't tell, Family Research Council, gays in the military, marriage equality

Be your own Rachel Maddow! Fans of the brilliant MSNBC commentator know that one reason Maddow is so popular is because she confronts lies with the truth. Now LGBTs and their allies can do the same thing when it comes to the debate about the military’s antigay policy, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

On Wednesday, the watchdog group Media Matters for America – founded by openly gay politico David Brock in reaction to the “Republican Noise Machine”– published a special report correcting the myths and lies perpetuated by biased or ignorant journalists – or reporters who slant coverage to keep access to powerful sources. That’s what many of us suspected was the agenda behind NBC’s Lisa Meyers’ devastating coverage of the original gays-in-the-military story in 1993. (See the video of Meyers report as part of this story. )

Consider, for instance, the February 23 edition of Fox News’ Special Report where Bret Baier uncritically reported that Gen. George Casey stated that repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy “might … adversely affect readiness.”

Lest anyone shrug this off as just another Fox News-Republican spin machine story, remember that the father of modern political conservatism – the late Arizona Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater – also called for lifting the ban against gays serving openly, crystallized in this famous quote: “You don’t have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.”

It’s one thing that the Fox News reporter didn’t know about Goldwater. But he should have known and reported that Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, appeared two days earlier (Feb 21) on NBC’ Meet the Press and was asked whether “soldiers on the ground in the field care one way or the other if their comrades in arms are gay or lesbian.” Petraeus said: “I’m not sure that they do….I served, in fact, in combat with individuals who were gay and who were lesbian in combat situations and, frankly, you know, over time you said, ‘Hey, how’s, how’s this guy’s shooting?’ Or ‘How is her analysis,’ or what have you.”

Please click inside to read more and see how you can help.

All this talk about repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” – and the spotlight on Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s very public and embarrassingly obvious flip-flop over gays and lesbians serving openly in the military made me think about McCain’s predecessor – the late Sen. Barry Goldwater, the political “father” of the conservative movement. Perhaps his most famous quote from the early 1990s is, “You don’t have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.”

But few remember that Goldwater wrote an op-ed calling for the ban on gays serving openly in the military to be lifted immediately. Click inside to read more about Goldwater and his entire op-ed.

The LGBT blogospher exploded Wednesday morning with reaction to the historic Senate Armed Services hearing Tuesday during which Defense Sec. Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen announced their desire to repeal the discriminatory Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, pursuant to President Obama’s State of the Union address saying he wanted to repeal DADT this year.

Retired General Colin Powell, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who supported congressional passage of DADT in 1993, also issued a statement Wednesday saying he supported the new approach.

The reaction to the repeal has been excitement that the end of DADT seems in sight mixed with cautious pushback over why the high commanders didn’t announce a suspension of enforcement while the policy is under review.

But for me – a military brat who’s been covering this issue since David Mixner first raised the prospect of lifting the ban on gays serving openly with presidential candidate Bill Clinton in 1991 – two developments I never thought I’d see also happened Wednesday: Mullen posted his opinion about DADT on his blog on the Joint Chiefs of Staff website (with a link to the full hearing transcript, video is coming) and the Pentagon featured a “straight” news report about DADT.

And here’s Rachel Maddow’s interview with Lt. Col. Fehrenbach:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Please click inside to read the roundup.

Let’s face it: the Commander-in-Chief and Congress are secretly afraid of the old men in the military. And the old men in the military, so accustomed to automatic deference by all branches of the US government, are afraid of losing their power as times and the culture change. They cannot fathom that younger soldiers and leaders, the ones the old men are sending to fight two wars, are no longer afraid of dropping their soap bar in the shower.

How else explain the compromise the Obama Administration, the Pentagon and Congress are expected to announce at Tuesday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing?

The military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was a so-called “compromise” cooked up 17 years ago after Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn and Republican Sen. John Warner decided to teach the upstart new President Bill Clinton – who escaped military service during the Vietnam War – exactly how Washington worked. In an unprecedented publicity stunt that ignored eons of the military’s top-down structure, Nunn (angry at not being named Secretary of Defense) and Warner went into the bowels of a submarine and asked for the opinions of sailors whose training drilled into them that their opinions do not matter, they must only follow orders.

Here’s how that first hearing went, as reported by NBC’s Lisa Meyers (hat tip to the site devoted to Leonard Matlovich):

Please click inside to read my essay previewing the hearing Tuesday.

At the historic August 2007 forum in which Democratic presidential candidates were questioned about their beliefs and policies on LGBT issues, singer Melissa Etheridge talked to Sen. Hillary Clinton about how wonderful gays felt finally being recognized under President Bill Clinton.

“We were very, very hopeful – and in the years that followed, our hearts were broken. We were thrown under the bus. We were pushed aside. All those great promises that were made to us were broken. And I understand politics. I understand how hard things are, to bring about change. But it is many years later now, and what are you going to do to be different than that? I know you’re sitting here now; it’s a year out — more than a year. A year from now, are we going to be left behind like we were before?”

Please click inside to see where I’m going with this. UPDATE: THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTED LATE THURSDAY THAT THE SENATE ARMED SERVICES WILL HOLD A SEPARATE HEARING WITH DEFENSE SEC. ROBERT GATES AND ADMIRAL MIKE MULLEN, CHAIR OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF ON DADT. RACHEL MADDOW LATER SAID THE RESULT COULD BE A DADT-LITE WITH RESTRICTIONS PLACED ON THE INVESTIGATORY PROCESS.

The Palm Center reports that Army Secretary John McHugh thinks the military is ready to lift the gay ban. But there is an interesting twist to this important announcement. There is a HUGE battle within the Republican Party over who will replace MCHugh in a special election in the conservative 23rd District Congressional seat from upstate New York. Could the timing indicate who McHugh wants to be the GOP candidate? Click inside to see the Palm Center’s press release and possible context for the statement.

The LGBT and progressive blogs are sizzling over whether the White House dissed the LGBT community or not after the National Equality March yesterday. Much may depend on your POV. Peter DelVecchio, a lawyer and newswriter for Frontiers IN LA, offers a very unique perspective: President Obama resembles one of those weird sub-atomic particles from quantum physics. Click inside to see how.