Pentagon set to end DADT

By Michael J.W. Stickings

According to reports, the U.S. military is finally ready to end DADT.

Then fucking do it already.

We already know that the military will be fine, that most in the military, including the rank and file, those who would serve in close proximity to gays and lesbians, are supportive of repeal, and that the top brass are on board, even those personally against repeal.

The public is overwhelmingly supportive of gays and lesbians serving openly.

And the courts have already ruled against the bigoted policy.

An announcement may come tomorrow. Not a moment too soon.

Is this now, finally, the end of DADT?

By Michael J.W. Stickings

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A federal appeals court ordered a halt [yesterday] to the armed forces' discharge of openly gay service members, citing the Obama administration's disavowal of laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had intervened in November to allow the government to continue enforcing the "don't ask, don't tell" law, despite a federal judge's decision that the law was unconstitutional.

[Yesterday], however, a three-judge panel of the court lifted the stay, saying, "The circumstances and balance of hardships have changed."

The court noted that Congress has voted to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" as soon as President Obama and the Pentagon certify that the change will not interfere with military readiness or recruiting. The administration has said most troops should be trained for the new policy change by mid-summer, although it had told the court the law should probably stay in effect for the rest of the year.

Enough already. The military will be fine. The troops specifically will be fine. It's long past time for this awful, bigoted policy to be tossed for good into the dustbin of history.

Gay marriage! In the Navy!

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Good riddance, DADT. Welcome aboard, same-sex marriage:

The military establishment, it appears, is willing to drag congressional Republicans kicking and screaming into the post-Don't Ask, Don't Tell era. The US Navy has authorized its chaplains to perform same-sex marriages on military bases in states that legally recognize such unions. That news came in a memo from the service's head chaplain (PDF), dated April 13:

Consistent with the tenets of his or her religious organization, a chaplain may officiate a same-sex, civil marriage: if it is conducted in accordance with a state that permits same-sex marriage or union; and if that chaplain is, according to the applicable state and local laws, otherwise fully certified to officiate that state’s marriages...if the base is located in a state where same-sex marriage is legal, then base facilities may normally be used to celebrate the marriage. This is true for purely religious services (e.g., a chaplain blessing a union) or a traditional wedding (e.g., a chaplain both blessing and conducting the ceremony).

The policy's unlikely to have a significant impact on gay or military communities: There's no naval base, for example, in Iowa, one of five states (along with the District of Columbia) that recognize same-sex marriages. And until the DADT repeal is certified by the Pentagon, no service members are likely to be hitching up at the Washington Navy Yard. Not only that, chaplains who disagree with gay marriage on theological grounds are under no obligation to perform the ceremonies, which shrinks the pool of willing wedding officiators to virtually nil.

No, but it's a start, and an extemely positive one. Republicans, bigoted or otherwise, aren't amused, of course, but the military, along with the rest of America, is slowly embracing equal rights for gays and lesbians, with retrograde conservative views becoming more and more the ugly relics of an ugly past.

Marriage equality is coming. And, with it, America, and its military, will be a much better place.