From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — The nation’s top two defense officials called Tuesday for an end to the 16-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, a major step toward allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the United States military for the first time.

Read the rest of the article from the New York Times here

“No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens,” Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The article from the New York Times provides a summary of the testimony given in the senate yesterday. Having the country’s top military leaders supporting the repeal of DADT is impressive and hopeful.

Meanwhile, polls cited by supporters of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell are as high as 79% of Americans are in favor of Gays & Lesbians serving honorably in the U.S. military.  The trend of support for the repeal among Americans seems to hold consistently through most of the demographics.

In stark contrast was Peter Sprigg, spokesperson for the Family Research Council appeared on Chris Mathews Hardball.  At the end of the clip from the show which aired on February 2, 2010, In response to questions from Mathews, Sprigg not only voices strong opposition to gays & lesbians serving in the military, but also admits that homosexuality should be criminalized. Sprigg asserted that the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v Texas overturning sodomy laws was wrongly decided.

In addition to Family Research Council Peter Sprigg, Senator John McCain has come down on the side of opposing the repeal of DADT.  McCain’s position is surprising considering his statement made in 2006 on the Chris Mathews Hardball show:

“The day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, ‘Senator, we ought to change the policy,’ then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it,’ ”- Sen. John McCain

That day has come in very clear terms. Yet Senator McCain opposes the counsel given by the military’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense (who served under two Presidents), as much as 79% of the American public, and the President who serves as the Commander-in Chief of the armed forces.

Interestingly, U.S. military personnell have long been serving along side gay & lesbian soldiers.

“I have served with homosexuals since 1968,” Admiral Mullen told the committee. He added, “Everybody in the military has, and we understand that.”

But another very interesting view of gays in the military emerges from the 28 NATO member countries. NATO which stands for the North Altlantic Treaty Organization is an intergovernmental military alliance which constitutes a system of collective defense whereby its member countries agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.

These are many of the same countries which in recent history have been coalition partners in the Gulf War and the Iraq War. Our troops serve with the military of these countries, not only in time of war but actively train with them.

Of the 28 NATO member countries, 25 of these countries allow for gays & lesbians to serve in their military. Only Greece, Turkey, and U.S. have prohibitions against gays serving.

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H/T: Pam’s House Blend

Oregon Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and David Wu join with 94 other members of congress in requesting the Office of the Secretary of Defense provide a detailed accounting of the number of military discharges under DADT and to provide a monthly reporting of future discharges to congress.

The Honorable Robert Gates
Secretary of Defense
U.S. Department of Defense
1300 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301

Dear Secretary Gates:
We write today with regards to the current prohibition on openly gay and lesbian service members in the military, commonly known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT).

This discriminatory policy results in the Department of Defense losing tens of millions each year in unrecoverable recruiting and training costs. The 2006 Blue Ribbon Commission’s report on DADT found that the Pentagon wasted over $360 million due to this policy from 1994 until 2003, the last year studied. Since its enactment in 1994, over 13,500 service members have been discharged under DADT, including 730 mission critical soldiers and over 65 Arabic and Farsi linguists vital to the war on terrorism.

To increase transparency on the effects the DADT policy is having on our military and by extension our national defense, we request that the Office of the Secretary of Defense provide data on the current number of DADT discharges since January 1, 2009 to the present, no later than January 15, 2010. In addition, we request monthly reports thereafter to Congress detailing the number of enlisted service members and officers discharged under the policy including their job specialty (MOS), time in the service and branch of the military.  Through these monthly updates, Congress and the public will get a clearer picture of the continued costs and damage to our national security inflicted by this policy.

We appreciate your attention to this matter and look forward to a timely response.

Sincerely,

James P. Moran

Hastings (D-FL), Baldwin (D-WI), Polis (D-CO), Frank (D-MA), Patrick Murphy (D-PA), Chu (D-CA), Berkley (D-NV), Wu (D-OR), Hinchey (D-NY), Jackson Jr (D-IL), Hare (D-IL), Doggett (D-TX), Olver (D-MA), Dingell (D-MI), Massa (D-NY), Gutierrez (D-IL), Walz (D-MI), Capuano (D-MA), Filner (D-CA), Quigley (D-IL), Cohen (D-TN), McGovern (D-MA), Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Grijalva (D-AZ), George Miller (D-CA), Capps (D-CA), Sherman (D-CA), Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI), Courtney (D-CT), Andrews (D_NJ), Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Wexler (D-FL), Rothman (D-NJ), DeGette (D-CO), Ed Markey (D-MA), Schwartz (D-PA), Serrano (D-NY), Blumenauer (D-OR), Schakowsky (D-IL), Stark (D-CA), John Hall (D-NY), Langevin (D-RI), Maloney (D-NY), Tsongas (D-MA), Clarke (D-NY), Delahunt (D-MA), Bobby Scott (D-VA), Himes (D-CT), Lofgren (D-CA), Owens (D-NY), Israel (D-NY), Weiner (D-NY), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Pingree (D-ME), Richardson (D-CA), Crowley (D-NY), Nadler (D-NY), Waxman (D-CA), Christensen (D-VI), Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Kagen (D-WI), Meeks (D-NY), Lujan (D-NM), John Lewis (D-GA), Connolly (D-VA), Engel (D-NY), Holmes Norton (D-DC), Ackerman (D-NY), Woolsey (D-CA), Adam Smith (D-WA), Shea-Porter (D-NH), Farr (D-CA), Fudge (D-OH), Kennedy (D-RI), Welch (D-VT), Carnahan (D-MO), Tierney (D-MA), Rush (D-IL), Honda (D-CA), Holt (D-NJ), Sestak (D-PA), Dahlkemper (D-PA), McDermott (D-WA), Kucinich (D-OH), Yarmuth (D-KY), Harman (D-CA), Titus (D-NV), Robert Brady (D-PA), Gonzalez (D-TX), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), Speier (D-CA), Van Hollen (D-MD), Woolsey (D-CA)

Laura Calvo
Portland OR

Tomorrow lots of turkeys and pumpkin pies will be placed in ovens around the country. Families, both immediate and extended ones, will gather to share the feast of thanksgiving. I’m sure the green bean, mushroom soup, and canned fried onion ring industry look forward to this time of year. Most folks will sit down to their dinner tables, including the card table set up for the kids, earlier than usual. A lot of folks will be up very early the next day for Black Friday. That always sounds like some sort of religious holiday of some sort, but it is the day that retailers across the country look forward to as they go from being in the red to being in the black.

Forty Thanksgivings have passed since the Stonewall riot in 1969. Thirty Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parades have marched in the streets of New York since Harvey Milk was assassinated in San Francisco.

Just as many or so holidays have passed since Anita Bryant, a former Miss America pageant runner up, became the lightening rod to ban Gay adoptions in Florida. Bryant led the “Save Our Children” campaign which led to a nationwide campaign of fear and marginalization of LGBT people. Her statement, made during the campaign, “”As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children” and “If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters.”, was turned around by Harvey Milk’s now famous rally cry, “My name is Harvey Milk and I am here to recruit you.

Bryant also said, “All America and all the world will hear what the people have said, and with God’s continued help we will prevail in our fight to repeal similar laws throughout the nation.” Her statement could be aptly book marked as the point where politically and legislatively LGBT people would be put on the defensive. Viscous anti-gay proposition and ballot measure campaigns sprung up which sought to further discriminate, vilify, and marginalize an entire class of Americans and their families for another two and a half decades.

As the fears of of Y2K manifested, another eight years of blight would ensue for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Americans in the shadows of terrorism, near financial ruin, two wars, and politics as usual. The power brokers of the extreme conservative right used gays and lesbians as a means to further drive a wedge in the American electorate.

In 2006, we saw the beginning of the tidal change. After a second term election of , arguably, one the most detrimental administrations in U.S. history, we began to see a sea change with a new majority in congress, state legislatures, and local government. More and more state and local jurisdictions were passing anti discrimination laws. Gay marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships were taking root and breaking the hard crusty top layer of soil. Increasing numbers of large corporations were extending benefits to their LGBT employees and an increasing number of these companies were taking the steps to ensure safe work place environments.

As with any sea on the globe, there are always storms and swells that don’t make for smooth sailing. Without doubt there has been set backs, delays, inefficiencies, squabbles, and obstacles along the way. By no means is the journey anywhere near the destination. But just as the pilgrims, who we attribute the custom of Thanksgiving, saw land fall of the eastern coast there is land in sight. Despite the sighting of land, much work remains. The journey will continue.

While many of us celebrate the holiday season, many of us are impatient and grow weary of the length of our journey. Our impatience is aggravated by the speed of change that we had hoped would come. Naturally,human tendency, gives rise to frustration when we don’t see more or faster forward movement towards our goal of full equality with our neighbors.

In 2008, the promise of change and hope led us to leap to the faith that our journey was nearing an end. In the past 10 months since inaugurating a new President with a majority in Congress, we have been perched on the edge of collective seats with the anticipation of seeing all of issues resolved. Many of us are not satisfied with the pace of the changes we had leaped to believe would happen by now. We should not be satisfied as we look over the political and social landscape. Agreed, any right delayed is a right denied.

At the same time, the moral arc of the world is long but does bend toward justice. We must all work to bend and shorten that arc in any way we can as individuals and collectively.

But as we all sit down for a feast with our family, friends, and loved one’s, let us take a moment to shift our forward gaze of impatience and anticipation to a positive reflection of the past. Take a moment to close your eye’s, take a deep breath and think back to what it was like in 1969. Imagine in your mind’s eye actually being there for the Stonewall Riot or Compton cafeteria. Hear the words of Harvey Milk and wrap yourself in what it would have felt like to be there the evening he was elected. Fast forward to election night last year and how the promise of a new dawn of hope sprang up across the country.

Now open your eyes and look at the past ten months. Look through the lens of accomplishment, if just briefly, to what has been done. If for just one day, just while you gather with friends, family and loved ones, reflect on where we have been and where we are today. Yes we still have a long ways to go and there is a lot of work yet to be done. By taking a moment, just a part of the day, maybe we can come together more resolved and energized to do that work.

The work we need to do to continue progress requires the resolve to get things done in a still difficult political climate. A climate where despite the ugly rhetoric, feet dragging and out right obstructionist ploys of those who would rather see us at worst obliterated and in the least silenced and forgotten still remains. That is why as we sit down to Thanksgiving dinner and join hands in thanks, we must also join hands in resolve to continue the journey.

Here is a list to consider from the last ten months:

• Appointment of David Hubener as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, confirmed by the Senate on November 23rd, 2009
• Reversed an inexcusable US position by signing the UN Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
• Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees
• Endorsed the Baldwin-Lieberman bill, The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009, to provide full partnership benefits to federal employees
• Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act
• Lifted the HIV Entry Ban effective January 2010
• Released the first Presidential PRIDE proclamation since 2000
• Hosted the first LGBT Pride Month Celebration in White House history
• Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Harvey Milk and Billie Jean King
• Appointed the first transgender DNC member in history
• Issued diplomatic passports, and provided other benefits, to the partners of same-sex foreign service employees
• Committed to ensuring that HUD’s core housing programs are open to all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity
• Conceived an HHS-funded National Resource Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Elders
• Testified in favor of ENDA, the first time any official of any administration has testified in the Senate on ENDA
• Signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded existing United States federal hate crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability
• Supported lower taxes for same-sex couples who receive health benefits from employers
• Hired and appointed a record number of qualified LGBT Americans, including more than 10 Senate confirmed appointments (and now Ambassador Huebner)
• Changed the culture of government everywhere from – among others – HUD and HHS to the Export-Import Bank, the State Department, and the Department of Education
• Emphasized LGBT inclusion in everything from the President’s historic NAACP address (“The pain of discrimination is still felt in America.  By African American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and a different gender.  By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country.  By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion simply because they kneel down to pray to their God.  By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.”) . . . to the first paragraph of his Family Day proclamation (“Whether children are raised by two parents, a single parent, grandparents, a same-sex couple, or a guardian, families encourage us to do our best and enable us to accomplish great things”) . . . to creating the chance for an adorable 10-year-old at the White House Easter Egg roll to tell ABC World News how cool it is to have two mommies . . . to including the chair of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce along with the Secretary of the Treasury and the President of Goldman Sachs in the very small audience for the President’s economic address at the New York Stock Exchange
• Recommitted, in a televised address, to passing ENDA . . . repealing Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell  . . . repealing the so-called Defense of Marriage Act

Congressman Earl Blumenauer posted the following article on Huffington Post today.

Proudly Changing My Position on DOMA

On July 12, 1996, I cast the worst vote of my political career. Having served in public office since 1973, that says something. While I’ve made other mistakes, this was different: it was a deliberate vote that I knew to be poor public policy and was against my values. I’ve been a strong champion of civil rights and protections based on sexual orientation since I chaired the first legislative hearing on anti-discrimination legislation in 1973. Even worse, this vote was cast after careful consideration.

Having given it much thought, I was convinced that by voting for this one federal statute against the recognition of same-sex marriage, it would somehow take the steam out of the Newt Gingrich-Tom Delay Congress, which was using the homophobic right-wing agenda to mobilize their base at the expense of millions of gay, lesbian, transgendered, and bisexual Americans. My hope was to simply move on and get to more pressing business at hand, including smaller steps for equality based on sexual orientation, like legislation against employment discrimination.

Since I was an outspoken supporter of anti-discrimination, I assumed that my calculations would be understood by my friends in the community and that we would lay this obnoxious political vendetta to rest. Wrong on all counts.

Read the rest over at the Huffington Post.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Portland Oregon Gay Pride Parade June 2009

H/T Cong. Steny H. Hoyer, House Democratic Majority Leader

Gov. Tim Kaine, the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, just appointed a number of GLBT people to the Democratic National Committee.

Among them is Oregon Democrat, business man, philanthropist, and GLBT rights leader Terry Bean who hails from Portland Oregon. Bean has been no stranger to the GLBT community working behind the scenes and sometimes in the spot light when it comes to equality for all GLBT Americans.

Gov. Kaine also appointed Babs Casbar-Siperstein who is the first ever transgender person to be become a Democratic National Committee member.  Casbar-Siperstein is one of the Deputy Vice-Chairs of the New Jersey Democratic Party.

Out lesbians, Randi Weingarten who is the President of the American Federation of Teachers and Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez also won appointments to the DNC.

Democratic Party activists and GLBT rights leaders Evan Low and Earl Fowlkes were also tapped tapped by Kaine to sit on the DNC. Low, an Asian American, is the Vice Mayor of Campbell CA and was the yougest person to be elected to a public office in California. Fowlkes is the President of the International Federation of Black Prides.

Rick Stafford, Chair of the DNC LGBT Americans, said that Gov. Kaine also appointed Maryland House Delegate Heather Mizeur to the DNC Executive Committee where she will join DNC Treasurer Andy Tobias, DNC Vice Chair Ray Buckley, and Stafford on the 45 member executive committee.

Stafford also notes that Governor Kaine’s appointments doubles the number of appointments ever made through this process and brings the overall  number of GLBT representaion in the DNC to near parity with the estimated GLBT Democratic vote loayalty.