December 18, 2010 – another pivotal moment in American history

December 18, 2010 in Uncategorized | Tags: gay rights

(The military’s express policy of) discrimination according to sexual preference ended on this date.

Scott Brown voted for it, but is downplaying it to minimize damage to his Tea Party support. Weenies about it or not, eight Republicans voted to repeal. In about 10 years, they’ll be taking credit for the whole thing.

Alleged Democratic Senator Joe Manchin skipped out on the vote altogether to attend a Christmas party.

Credit where it’s due – Lieberman was instrumental.

Addendum: I’ve scanned a few of the conservative blogs. Some of them appear to be quite subdued, with Red State not even mentioning the repeal. Hot Air posted a slew of conservative comments. This is my favorite:

Every last republican senator that voted for this should be, not only primaried, but they should also be forced to answer for the inevitable gay marriage this will force down American’s Throats. Married Gays from states that allow same sex marriages can now join the Armed forces, and when they leave the armed forces, who is going to say their relationship cannot be recognized in some new place they eventually live?

astonerii on December 18, 2010 at 11:39 PM

About these ads

December 2010
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Nov		Jan »
	1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

29 comments

Comments feed for this article

December 18, 2010 at 11:50 pm

Heraldo

Great news. It’s about time.

December 19, 2010 at 1:13 am

Matt

Our country desperately needs more sane Republicans like Scott Brown.

December 19, 2010 at 6:47 am

Mitch

Thanks, Eric, for the quote from Hot Air. I love that comment, too, because it may well point out a valid “problem.” Yup, it’s going to be awfully hard for our military-luvin’ right-wing reactionaries to tell married homo-heroes that their marriages aren’t recognized.

Didn’t they try to do that once before preventing black soldiers from eating with the white’uns? Gol’darn it’s embarrassing.

December 19, 2010 at 7:30 am

moviedad

And discrimination against blacks ended on April 9, 1865. Oh happy day.

December 19, 2010 at 7:50 am

tra

Jeez, moviedad, nobody is claiming that ALL discrimination against gays has ended. Nevertheless, this is an important step forward, and it does seem likely to improve the chances for further gains.

December 19, 2010 at 9:17 am

Anonymous

What planet do y’all come from?

Maybe for equality sakes the military should make barracks and shower facilities co-ed too?

December 19, 2010 at 10:28 am

Jim

Agreed MovieDad.
Tra, the headline clearly says “Discrimination according to sexual preference ended on this date”. I interpret that to mean all discrimination, because it was not specified to this particular stripe of LGBT discrimination.
When I can give blood and get married, then I will feel more comfortable claiming that all codified discrimination will have ended, but anything deeper is just BS in the world we live in where prejudice and bigotry are facts of life.

December 19, 2010 at 12:16 pm

anonymous

You can count on moviedad to take a shit on anything that resembles progress… no fool he.

December 19, 2010 at 1:28 pm

moviedad

Jeez, reasonable, nothing personal. I just have a low threshold for hyperbole lately. Those fat-cats are always acting like they have achieved some great victory for freedom, when in reality their actions don’t amount to much in reality.

December 19, 2010 at 7:26 pm

Mitch

OK, guys, you’re both right.

December 19, 2010 at 8:24 pm

Eric Kirk

Alright, I qualified the wording. Everyone happy now?

December 19, 2010 at 8:26 pm

Eric Kirk

Maybe for equality sakes the military should make barracks and shower facilities co-ed too?

Works for me.

December 19, 2010 at 8:57 pm

Mitch

Anonymous 9:17,

It’s too late for you. Every gay male at the gym already knows about your 2″ dick.

December 19, 2010 at 9:06 pm

Plain Jane

So does every hetero woman, Mitch.

December 19, 2010 at 9:47 pm

moviedad

Sorry Eric, I didn’t mean to ‘Assangenate’ you. I was referring to the congress-critters.

December 20, 2010 at 7:51 am

Anonymous

Works for you Eric? But you’ve never served your country in the military or elsewhere, have you?

December 20, 2010 at 3:13 pm

Not A Native

Hadn’t seen the word ‘primaried’ before. Guess its a shortening of ‘being challenged in a primary’. Is it in a dictionary yet?

But I gather the term has the more ominous connotation of being challenged by a more extreme faction, like by a Libertarian from the Right or an Anarchist from the Left. Can’t imagine that someone could be ‘primaried’ by a moderate.

Its a little ironic that some of the same people who would like to reduce our large military institution because its missions impose US imperialism through subjugation and oppression, also celebrate that a new group of people will now be eligible and presumably encouraged to enlist. Is the prospect of gay/lesbian US soldiers who torture and kill indiscriminately somehow also not troublesome? I guess having an equal opportunity to be a warrior with license to humiliate and kill people is most important.

December 20, 2010 at 3:36 pm

Erasmus

I wouldn’t express myself as “Not a Native” did, and my thinking is not identical, but along similar lines: are we to rejoice that the military will henceforth have a much closer relationship with universities? That ROTC is on its way back to several Ivy League schools? That the military’s image will be burnished to the sort of glow it had decades ago? — Just as gays seem to want the sometimes onerous responsibilities of marriage (as more and more straights choose to live without them), so gay soldiers want to be integrated into a system that certainly does not encourage the values that I applaud in my gay friends. Don’t misunderstand me: the vote was correct and long overdue. But there are ironies at work here. It just became a bit more difficult to be anti-military.

December 20, 2010 at 7:48 pm

Eric Kirk

Works for you Eric? But you’ve never served your country in the military or elsewhere, have you?

Not in the military. Perhaps “elsewhere” depending on your defintion of “serving your country.” But had coed showers been offered, I would have seen it as an incentive.

Hadn’t seen the word ‘primaried’ before. Guess its a shortening of ‘being challenged in a primary’. Is it in a dictionary yet?

I don’t know, but I first heard it in reference to Lieberman in 2006. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the wooden stake needed as a slew of older Democratic voters and nearly all the Republicans sent him back to Washington in the general.

December 20, 2010 at 9:31 pm

Mr. Nice

Oh no now there are gonna be more gays in the military than 90%.

December 20, 2010 at 9:44 pm

Mr. Nicelli

My bad, 2.2% of the military are allegedly gay.
Lesbian, gay, and bisexual men and women in the US military: Updated estimates

The gay % stats is not irrelevant. The important stat in that paper is the half billion dollars the government pissed away ferreting out gays. Fuck that.

December 20, 2010 at 10:11 pm

an only mouse

well stated erasmus!!
the military has had a strong hand in diminishing american bigotry since the end of vietnam. and is responsible for abu ghraib and for guantanamo bay and the school of the americas.
war, and preperation for war, aint healthy; psychically, physically, environmentally or emotionally. like an old whore, you can put pretty paint on her, but she just aint right.

December 21, 2010 at 9:50 am

Mitch

NaN,

“I guess having an equal opportunity to be a warrior with license to humiliate and kill people is most important.”

For the many gay people now serving in the military, having a source of blackmail removed is important.

For the many gay kids who correctly see the military as a way out of being trapped in small-minded communities in which they’ll find it difficult to grow, and who are willing to roll the dice that they’ll advance themselves without ending up destroyed, equal opportunity is important.

It’s perfectly consistent to see this and not be in favor of American imperialism. I think gay kids should be free to join the military. I hope they don’t have to.

December 21, 2010 at 2:24 pm

Not A Native

So, an acceptable ‘way out of being trapped in small-minded communities’ is to find an opportunity to tyrannize even more trapped, impoverished and less fortunlate people? OK, I get it.. I’m deserving because I’ve been oppressed so its OK to improve my life by harming(oppressing) someone else. My opportunity is your misfortune, so TS. Thats how the cookie crumbles, can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs, gotta do what you gotta do. Real nice and morally bankrupt.

And Eric would be more motivated to enlist if he could commune with naked women in the showers. Presumably the motivating factor is greater opportunities to have sexual access to women he finds attractive that he wouldn’t otherwise have a chance with. But some gay persons won’t have the same motivation to enlist and hope for similar results?

December 21, 2010 at 4:35 pm

Mitch

NaN,

I’ve never served in the military, but my understanding is that at least several members of the military have never been required to tyrannize trapped, impoverished, and less fortunate people. They just do jeep repair while learning a trade.

And NaN, I’m sure you’re right. I know that my first thought throughout high school was “I can’t wait to be terrorized by a homophobic sergeant, and get a chance to sleep with twenty men, some of whom would undoubtedly want to beat me up if they knew I was gay.” Sadly, I missed my chance. But now that gays can legally serve, I’m sure that members of high school bands and drama clubs will be lining up to have “sexual access to [men they] find attractive.” After all, there’s no chance to do that in civilian life.

December 21, 2010 at 4:38 pm

Eric Kirk

And Eric would be more motivated to enlist if he could commune with naked women in the showers.

It was a joke you know.

By the way, the showers were coed in the movie adaption of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, which also suggested that only those who serve in wars should have the vote – hardly anti-military.

December 21, 2010 at 5:29 pm

Not A Native

I see, you’re exempt from accountability for the mission of the organization whose orders and directives you willingly follow. So if you had loaded the bombs that kill civilians or repair the tank that crushes houses with residents inside, you’ve done meritorious duty while learning a trade useful for your future remuneration. Certainly you’re no way involved with the outcome. “Once the rockets go up, who cares where they come down? Thats not my department, says Werner VonBraun” credit to Tom Lehrer.

God jpke Eric, guess I and other missed it becuase we were thinking about “Animal House” and the passions of young male adults.

December 21, 2010 at 8:36 pm

Mitch

NaN,

People do what they feel they need to do. While I was fortunate enough that I did not feel the military was part of a very limited set of options, many people are not. If a straight 18 year old has the option of joining the military, an equally qualified gay 18 year old should have that option as well.

I take it you refuse all the benefits that come from the United States having a strong military, NaN. That’s very noble to reject any income higher than the per capita average in Haiti.

December 23, 2010 at 8:30 am

Anonymous

Now there is no reason you can’t join the Navy !

	That Other Anonymous on Online Petition to the Board o…
	That Other Anonymous on Online Petition to the Board o…
	That Other Anonymous on Online Petition to the Board o…
	Eric Kirk on Online Petition to the Board o…
	suzy blah blah on North Coast Environmental Cent…
	suzy blah blah on North Coast Environmental Cent…
	That Other Anonymous on Online Petition to the Board o…
	Narration on North Coast Environmental Cent…
	suzy blah blah on North Coast Environmental Cent…
	Narration on North Coast Environmental Cent…
	longwind on Online Petition to the Board o…
	longwind on Online Petition to the Board o…
	Eric Kirk on Online Petition to the Board o…
	Eric Kirk on Online Petition to the Board o…
	suzy blah blah on North Coast Environmental Cent…

December 18, 2010 – another pivotal moment in American history

Like this:

Recent Comments

Local Media

North Coast Blogs

Progressive Media

Sohum Blogs

Archives

Tags

Meta

Recent Posts

29 comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Follow “Sohum Parlance II”