Patrick of the Gryphmon blog alerted us to another us to the latest wrinkle in the saga of San Francisco and the USS Iowa. Now, some want to “turn part of the vessel into a museum honoring the contributions of gays, lesbians, ethnic minorities and women to the military” in order to “help sway the Board of Supervisors’ decision.” As we reported in July, the Board voted against the permanent berthing of the USS Iowa in their city.
While it’s important that we recognize the courage and sacrifice the countless gay and lesbian service members over the years, this is not the place to do it. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors should reverse their July decision and agree to berth this battleship in their fair city to honor all those who served to defend our freedom–and the particular history of this ship. Most of the men and women who served aboard the ship were straight.
We must honor them as well when we tell the story great ship. It brought President Roosevelt home from the Tehran Conference and “suffered one of the nation’s most deadly military accidents in 1989 when 47 sailors were killed in an explosion during a training exercise.”
As we remember that history, let’s find another means to honor gay and lesbian veterans. And let us do so in a way that shows their sexuality was incidental to their service to our great nation.
-Dan (AKA GayPatriotWest): GayPatriotWest@aol.com
Dispatch from West Point
Following my posting on Tuesday about a new study released by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, I received a very nice ‘thank you’ email from Steve Ralls, SLDN Director of Communications.
Steve made me aware of a week-long series of blog articles on SLDN’s website by gay graduates of the service academies. Steve thought readers of GayPatriot would be especially interested in Tuesday’s “Dispatch from West Point” submission. I have printed it below in its entirety. You can read other reflections of gay and lesbian servicemembers at SLDN’s blog.
[Read more…]
Latest on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Well, lookie here…. a common thread in these two posts this morning! Wooo hoooo!
AnotherGayRepublican has the lowdown on a new report highlighting the price the US military is paying for their “DADT” policy.
Gays and recruiting goals – AnotherGayRepublican
New report from Servicemembers Legal Defense Network says: The United States military could attract as many as 41,000 new recruits by lifting its ?Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell? ban on gay personnel, new data released today by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) shows.
AGR observes: It shouldn’t matter whether letting gays and lesbians serve openly helps recruiting goals or gains 4 or 40,000 new service members. It should be enough that these men and women love their country and want to serve. But if this argument convinces the government to change policy, we’ll take it.
But of course what you really want to know now is…. what would Oliver Stone think? (Was that segue too obvious???)
-Bruce (GayPatriot) – gaypatriot2004@aol.com
A military blogger comes out against DADT
In an e-mail, blog reader Synova linked me to this excellent piece by a military blogger who doesn’t think there’s a good reason to exclude gays from the military:
I think it’s time to stop pretending there are no gay people in the military. Don’t ask, don’t tell is a silly policy that doesn’t give our troops credit for their tolerance. No one gains from this and it gives weasel protestors a meager moral advantage as they oppose military recruiting.
Uncle Jimbo, “Madison’s favorite hawk,” takes issues with Elaine Donnelly’s USA TODAY column favoring the continued exclusion of gays from serving in the military.
Since Uncle Jimbo is a military guy without a gay agenda, his piece carries particular weight. If we’re ever going to get rid of “one of the great injustices and follies of our time,” more military guys like him need to speak out against the ban. When the American people see this as an issue of military effectiveness, they’ll come on board and pressure their legislators to change the law. Jimbo makes a better case than I could ever make on this issue, so just read the WHOLE THING!!
Economist: US Military Should End DADT
Thanks to Charging Rhino for bringing this Economist editorial to my attention.
Gay warriors – Economist
President Bush make some real progress with the gay community by either directly or indirectly allowing DADT to fall by the wayside. After all, under Bush DADT-related discharges are at an all-time low anyway…. after the spike under William Jefferson Clinton (the Gay Messiah).
The problem of course is the Gay Street activists loathe Bush so much and refuse to even work with the Administration (and instead calls him ‘evil’). If there were more open dialogue, perhaps there’d be a chance to bring DADT to a quiet end. The other problem is even if DADT ended, you know the gay lefties would find someway to criticize Bush and continue to call him evil.
But I have some hope. DADT isn’t as red-hot of an issue as gay marriage… and the discharges of the gay Arabic-speaking analysts in a time of war certainly resonate in Red State America, in my view.
Might we see some movement here? Let’s hope.