House Votes to Allow Repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Law

From the New York Times:

The House voted Thursday to let the Defense Department repeal the ban on gay and bisexual people from serving openly in the military, a major step toward dismantling the 1993 law widely known as “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

And

Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, the No. 3 Republican in the House, accused Democrats of trying to use the military “to advance a liberal social agenda” and demanded that Congress “put its priorities in order.”

More here.

A few random observations:

This has been a long time in coming. I remember being shocked back in '93 when arrogant Senate Democrats went off on President Clinton for trying to lift the ban on gays in the military resulting in the fucked up compromise "don't ask; don't tell" policy, which actually increased the number of homosexual military personnel drummed out of the service.

The homophobes' reasoning back then was all that bullshit about "unit cohesion." As if the most formidable fighting force in the world was going to be creeped out by a few fairies in the ranks. Before that, it was the whole blackmail thing: Soviet spies would find out who was gay and threaten to out them if they didn't turn over vital state secrets. I suppose the new "unit cohesion" argument needed to be crafted in the early 90s because being outed wasn't quite the big deal it was back in the 1950s. Whatever. "Unit cohesion" was as bogus an argument in 1993 as it is today. The troops are not frightened of homosexuals.

Anti-gay Republicans, and like minded Democrats, talk about this as though it will turn the military on its head. "Social experiments" they call it, or a "liberal social agenda." The reality is that gays have always served in the military. It's just that they've always had to be wary of weirdos finding out and reporting them--most comrades didn't and don't care one way or the other; what soldiers really care about is if you're dependable, if you're a good soldier, gay or straight. It's only the true homophobes you've got to look out for.

In many ways, this isn't even much of a civil rights issue. I mean, sure, it's a civil rights issue, but since 9/11, the military has trounced out dozens of Arabic translators because they were gay. That's just fucking stupid, and it makes gays in the military into a national security issue. That is, in order to keep the world safe for democracy we need gays in the military.

I hope everybody realizes that the most badass fighters in the history of Western Civilization, the Spartans, were also some of the biggest fags in the history of Western Civilization. For them, homosexuality and "unit cohesion" were one and the same. I mean, literally. Now who's going to tell me that gays made the Spartan military less effective? Huh? Who?

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