So as of Tuesday morning, after midnight on the east coast, the prohibition of open homosexuality (or closed) in the military died.
Thanks to Mitch for forwarding this video of a soldier son coming out to his father. This is true bravery.
….
Meanwhile, Navy Lt. Gary Ross planned a trip to Vermont and married at 12:00 a.m. exactly, the first official post-DADT marriage.
….
This WAPO article contains these two stories, and some more.
And that article led this gentleman to change his mind on the issue. Sort of.
….
Addendum: A soldier deployed in Iraq identifies himself as gay and asks whether Santorum would stop the progress made by gays and lesbians in the military. Santorum says he would reinstate DADT, and shows that he either doesn’t understand the policy or lies, saying simply that “sex shouldn’t matter,” and erroneously implies that the policy applies only to sexual activity and not preference. Note also that the soldier is booed by several members of the audience, but I’m sure there’ll be plenty of analysis to convince us that they weren’t really booing him personally and it’s really not so bad, yada, yada, yada.
16 comments
Comments feed for this article
September 21, 2011 at 9:14 pm
tra
I don’t know who to be more impressed with — the son, for his courage, or the dad, for so clearly and forcefully assuring his son that he still loves him, will always love him, and that it “does not change our relationship one bit,” a message which he repeats numerous times.
I am not ashamed to admit that watching this video brought tears to my eyes.
September 21, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Eric Kirk
Yeah. I pretty much held my breath when he started dialing. I kind of figured if there had been a bad ending, it would have been noted ahead of time. But I was concerned about a more flat non-committal response. There was a slight change in tone in the father’s voice, but there could be a number of factors at play, such as “Thank you son, but why did you wait so long to trust me with this?” Point is, he said he loved his son, and he kept repeating it, clearly not to convince himself, but his son.
September 21, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Mitch
Thanks for posting this clip, Eric.
I’m mystified by young people’s willingness to share extremely personal moments with the world, but I’m glad this young man did.
Jon Stewart used this on The Daily Show last night, warning his viewers about the perverted, deviant behavior they could now expect in the military, then cut to parts of this clip, then expressed mock-outrage about unconditional love.
I believe this clip, along with the Prop 8 trial video, will greatly contribute to the ability of people to judge anti-gay bigotry for what it is. The saddest part of this clip is that the young man truly could not know whether his father would respond negatively, as so many men might have. Nobody should have to live with that question hanging over them.
September 21, 2011 at 10:36 pm
Mitch
I checked the video at YouTube once again, and it’s already had more than two million views. Astonishing.
September 22, 2011 at 6:39 am
Joel Mielke
This means that Rev. Fred Phelps will have to die soon, so that he can turn in his grave.
September 22, 2011 at 7:30 am
Erasmus
Quite a remarkable video, not only for the courage and compassion it reveals, but for the change in intergenerational communication it signals. My father and I would never have indulged in such lovey-dovey talk, no matter how significant the matter being discussed. — And the young man’s father hails from Alabama?Will wonders never cease!
September 22, 2011 at 7:54 am
Bolithio
Poor republicans. Now they only have abortion and science to fight against.
September 22, 2011 at 8:15 am
Mitch
Jews are always reliable. Just give the GOP time.
September 22, 2011 at 8:24 am
Plain Jane
Jews have been replaced by Muslims, Mexicans and liberal-socialist-fascist-communists-unionists, Mitch.
September 22, 2011 at 10:52 am
Mitch
The Jews are never replaced, Jane. Just rotated out sometimes.
Obviously, Spanish-speakers would be at the top of this year’s scapegoat lineup, but the GOP is still hoping to capitalize on Spanish speakers’ skewing-conservative demographics. A real inconvenience.
Muslims are serving just fine as scapegoats of the moment.
Most people don’t bother saying “liberal-socialist-fascist-communist-unionist,” Jane. They just say “probable Jew.” :-/
September 22, 2011 at 11:39 am
Erasmus
Do you know anyone who would say “probable Jew”? I don’t. If I were Jewish I’d offer one cheer to the Irving Kristols and Norman Podhoretzs on the right end of the political spectrum, for they’ve made it harder for bigots to pigeon-hole Jews. In fact, I can’t think of an era in American history when being Jewish was less of a liability.
September 22, 2011 at 11:59 am
Plain Jane
LOL Mitch!
September 22, 2011 at 12:41 pm
Mitch
Erasmus,
Everyone’s entitled to their own opinions. Perhaps in your rarefied circles, anti-semitism is vanquished. For me, though, I worry regularly about when I’m going to need to emigrate. Really.
September 22, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Eric Kirk
Oh come on Mitch. Nobody hates Jews. They just want you to be “perfected.”
September 23, 2011 at 6:45 am
Eric Kirk
Huntsman is the first (and only?) GOP candidate to condemn the booing of the gay soldier.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/#550
Ari Fleischer also condemned it.
“Booing a soldier serving our nation is uncalled for,” Ari Fleischer, former George W. Bush Press Secretary, tweeted. “If I were on stage, i would make that point.”
Edit: Gary Johnson also found a soul afterwards.
“In my opinion, when you have booing this is not indicative of Republicans,” he said. “This is not the Republican Party that I belong to.”
September 23, 2011 at 6:50 am
Eric Kirk
Here’s a turning point maybe. We have the first Congressional Republican on board to overturn DOMA.
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/ros-lehtinen_first_goper_to_sponsor_bill_repealing.php?ref=fpblg