Gays & Lesbians Can be Killers, Too

(Oklahoma City) Cindy Sheehan, well known peace activist and political candidate, who had a son killed in the Bu$h Junta's invasion of Iraq, has written an article reflecting on the recent commencement of the process to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT), the 1993 policy signed by President Bill Clinton to discriminate against gays and lesbians in the American military and now repealed by Congress and President Obama this month.

In my view Sheehan is squarely on the mark as she points out there is no equivalency in acknowledging the civil rights of minorities as a useful mission of the military.

Any country's primary use of its military resources is about learning to kill effectively on command. From the lowest rookie recruit in the kitchen/laundry support services to the highest commander in combat to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the military's job is about destruction of lives and property without second thought or reflection beforehand when the boot meets the ground, the finger meets the trigger, where the eye focuses on the cross-hairs, at the last link in the chain of command.

All the face time that news commentators such as Rachel Maddow have given to the gays/lesbians on the news shows has distracted us from the job those kicked out were doing.

Concerning two of the most prominent faces in the DADT separations, Fahrenback was/wants to continue to be a F-15E Strike Eagle pilot. Choi is/wants to continue as a translator but also lead men in combat as an infantry platoon leader.

The removal of DADT is an improvement for those wishing to live in the military occupation, but I do not feel proud for myself.

I don't feel comfortable about our equality movement having our birthright recognized by bringing death and violence to innocent people through the actions of legally openly serving gay men and women in any military, regardless of country.

Gay men and women have been serving for centuries in military occupations, a historical fact even acknowledged by President Obama in his DADT-repeal signing remarks. We've been waving the flag and participating in a pseudo-Norman Rockwell parade painting through the generations during which time we were still made a fecal target.

Spare me the observation that gays in the military can be used to disprove the stereotype of gay men having no courage, that manliness knows no sexual orientation. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) knows no orientation either.

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Don't Go, Don't Kill!

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27118.htm

The repeal of don't ask, don't Tell for gays in the US military is not a positive step for equality, activist says.

By Cindy Sheehan

December 23, 2010 "Al-Jazeera" - -The recent repeal of the US military policy of "Don’t ask, don’t tell" is far from being the human rights advancement some are touting it to be. I find it intellectually dishonest, in fact, illogical on any level to associate human rights with any military, let alone one that is currently dehumanizing two populations as well as numerous other victims of it's clandestine "security" policies.

Don't Go, Don't Kill

The repeal of don't ask, don't tell

By Cindy Sheehan

The US military is not a human rights organisation and nowhere near a healthy
place to earn a living or raise a family.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27118.htm

DADT: With all Deliberate Speed

When you keep hitting your head against the wall, it's the head that breaks.

(OKLAHOMA CITY) Are America's gay and lesbian service members better off with DADT now on the way to the trash can of prejudice? Are gays and lesbians in civilian life better off without DADT on the books? I've been asking myself that question since the vote. Since I can't say absolutely yes, it has to mean a qualified no.

I've never been in the armed forces nor do I ever want to be. I have no experience to draw on in regard to living in a regimented structure or abiding by a detailed chain of command. I know several gay men who are veterans of military service and have been honorably discharged because they wanted to do other things with their futures and not because of any infraction of the military codes of acceptable behavior.

I can only conjecture that the open acceptance of gay/lesbian service members should lay to rest, at least among those straights who are not incontrovertibly flat-earth thinkers, the stereotype of a gay man or woman as undependable, flighty, irresponsible, somehow second-rate mentally and physically.

Remember, there have always been gay and lesbian citizens in the American military, acknowledged or not.

Though not all service members are in combat units, can anyone really think that those gay men who have chosen to take the training that reverses all normal civil behavior be unable to kill when required by orders or mission? How can the stereotype of limp-wristed fruits hold up against the evidence of deeds and the awarding of medals?

Indeed, that's why homo-acceptance is so worrisome to the flat-earthers--when prejudice meets reality, they lose their footing and slide on the suddenly made-round earth.

In the civilian mode of living, I also conjecture that the repeal of DADT will also lead to the repeal of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) and the passage of ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) for the same reasons of prejudice meeting reality.

When you keep hitting your head against the wall, it's the the head that breaks.

Dr. M.L. King is quoted as saying, “It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.”

I think this quote can apply to gays/lesbians in the American Armed Forces and civilian life. Homo-hatred isn't erased by the passage of laws any more than racism went extinct with the passage of the 1964 civil rights and 1965 voting rights acts or the 1954 Supreme Court opinion of Brown v. Board of Education that integrated public schools.

Racism is in play right now to a degree, I think, unseen since the mid-1950s to early 1960s. The racism-that-dare-not-speak-it's-name is due to the election of a bi-racial man as president. The historian Robert Graves wrote a novel of Roman empire days and he has the Emperor Claudius saying at his death, a man supposed to have been progressive for his era, "Let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out," referring to the wars he expected would develop without his more peaceful point-of-view to guide the politics of his time.

Even after the presidential signing of the bill the legal repeal of DADT doesn't go into effect until the Pentagon and the president have certified that procedures and policies have been implemented that allows for the smooth transition of gay/lesbian openness in the military. And then there is a 60-day "cooling-off period." Can this cooling-off period be a resurgence of a phrase from another important civil rights issue in the 1950s?

Even the integration decision of Brown in 1954 required a second opinion in 1955 clarifying just how fast the implementation of the 1954 decision was to occur. The nine wise men in black wrote "with all deliberate speed." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_v._Board_of_Education )

It took eleven years for passage of the Matthew Shepard/James Byrd Hate Crimes Act, named after two men who were killed in particularly heinous ways (one because he was gay, the other because he was black) during which time forty-one states passed anti-gay marriage amendments or statutes. Only five states recognize our civil right to marry the person of our choice, with two states facing possible reversal of our equality: California and New Hampshire.

Perhaps the passage of time will bring our equality into focus even as the passage of laws are used to delay "with all deliberate speed" the recognition of our birthright of equality in America.

Even if Wikileaks is offline Manchester Guardian in England has this database

Even if Wikileaks is offline, or if you have difficulty accessing the leaked files on Wikileaks, the Manchester Guardian in England has this database to enable browsing of the cables and other documents so far released by country, subject, or persons:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2010/nov/28/us-embassy-cables-wikileaks

or http://tinyurl.com/3xatpww

Surviving Partner Of Missouri State Trooper Killed On Duty Challenges Discriminatory Benefits Policy

Courtesy of Rex Wockner, indie journalist, google him....



Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2010 12:02:03 -0500
From: ACLU MEDIA

Surviving Partner Of Missouri State Trooper Killed On Duty Challenges Discriminatory Benefits Policy

Same-Sex Couples Excluded From Receiving Survivor Benefits

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 2, 2010
CONTACT:
Robyn Shepherd, ACLU National, (212) 519-7829 or 549-2666; media@aclu.org
Debbie Read, ACLU of Eastern Missouri, (314) 652-3114; debbie@aclu-em.org

JEFFERSON CITY, MO - The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Eastern Missouri and the ACLU of Kansas & Western Missouri filed a lawsuit today on behalf of Kelly Glossip, whose partner, Dennis Engelhard, was a state trooper killed in the line of duty while responding to an accident on Christmas Day of last year. Missouri offers survivor benefits to spouses of state troopers who are killed in the line of duty, but excludes committed same-sex partners from receiving those benefits. Glossip is seeking the same survivor benefits provided to opposite-sex partners.

"Dennis and I loved each other and lived in a committed relationship for 15 years. We depended on each other emotionally and financially in our life together like any other committed couple. We exchanged rings and would have married in Missouri if the state didn't exclude us from marriage," said Glossip. "I'm just seeking the same financial protections the state provides to heterosexual couples. It is hard enough coping with the grief of losing Dennis. It is even more painful to have the state treat Dennis and me as though we were total strangers."

Spouses of Missouri State Highway Patrol employees are entitled to an annuity of 50 percent of the employee's average salary if the employee is killed on duty. Since Engelhard's death, Glossip has struggled with paying the mortgage on the home they both owned. While Glossip is not challenging the definition of marriage under Missouri law, he is challenging the benefits policy as a violation of his rights under the Missouri Constitution.

"Dennis and Kelly were a family in every sense of the word," said John Knight, staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Project. "They owned a home together, shared cars and bank accounts, and Dennis even helped Kelly care for his child from a former marriage. They vowed to take care of each other in good times and in bad. As a matter of basic fairness, Kelly should be entitled to the same security as other bereaved partners of troopers killed in the line of duty."

Engelhard was struck by a vehicle while responding to an accident on Christmas Day, 2009. Following his death, the governor ordered all U.S. and Missouri flags to be flown at half-staff. Kelly attended a ceremony in Washington, D.C. in May 2010 commemorating the loss of police officers nationwide, and was recognized with a medallion as Engelhard's surviving partner.

"Kelly is merely seeking the same treatment he would have received if his partner had been a woman, rather than a man," said Anthony Rothert, Legal Director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. "Kelly may not have been able to marry the person of his choice under Missouri state law, but he is still entitled to equal protection and the fundamental right to the family relationship he formed with Dennis Engelhard. He is seeking the same dignity and security for his family that is granted to other state troopers' families."

Attorneys on the case include Rothert and Grant R. Doty of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, Stephen Douglas Bonney of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri, Knight and Joshua Block of the ACLU LGBT Project and Roger K. Heidenreich of SNR Denton.

For more information on this case, including a video, please visit: www.aclu.org/glossip

Sally Kern's Bethany Oklahoma District going to the Dogs

(OKLAHOMA CITY) Recently re-elected GOPer Rep. Sally Kern, Oklahoma's leading, and one of America's outstanding homo-haters, has some alleged sexual philanderings going on among her constituents that she won't find in her bible. I wonder if the participants selected gender-appropriate partners?

She's alleged to have remarked some five years ago that inter-animal sex is OK if it's opposite gendered.

Of course, she was talking about the fantasy of sex when kissing a frog, not an actual physical puckering up to an amphibian.

But we all know Ms. Kern gets excited when talking about sex and often overstates her enthusiasm about the topic of genitals, human or other-specied, when questioned about it.

From a 2005 interview of Kern by Michelangelo Signorile, he posits an example of a fairy tale character coming back to life when kissed by another fairy tale character. Odd that Kern didn't react to an obvious reference to a common religious story of a god-like figure rising from the dead, and indeed the centerpiece of her own blood-driven religious experiences. I guess rising from the dead isn't in Kern's sexual fantasy playbook.


Signorile interview--
http://tinyurl.com/35vnvyl

Dallas Voice story--
http://tinyurl.com/2vtybnz

Oklahoman story--
http://tinyurl.com/34gv25m

You can view Kern's latest attempt to appear more kindly and user-friendly here:
http://www.okhouse.gov/committees/member.aspx?memberid=87