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When a retired Marine — and a black straight ally can come out in full-throated support for the repeal of DADT, it makes you wonder just how spineless these elected officials on the Hill have to be to continue wringing their feeble hands over the frightening concept of ending discrimination. Knight’s Out:
One of Knights Out’s newer members – a retired Marine – spoke out after Marine Corps Commandant General James T. Conway expressed his personal opinion this week that the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy doesn’t need to be repealed.“When you’re in combat – and I know, from Vietnam – the last thing on your mind is whether the guy next to you is gay or straight. You just need to know that they can do the job,” said Ronald Washington, former Marine sergeant and Vietnam veteran. “‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ – Marines don’t care. They care about the mission.”
Washington, who is straight, joined Knights Out as an ally because he believes that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” should be repealed.
“As a black Marine, I know from experience that the military can be slow to accept change, but I also know that Marines are good and decent people who are able to judge each other on the basis of what counts: character and competence,” said Washington.
The Chair of Knights Out, Becky Kanis, is a 1991 West Point graduate and former Special Operations company commander. ”We are fighting two wars, and our fighting men and women deserve to be honest about their lives,” concluded Kanis. ”Gay and lesbian Soldiers aren’t a distraction – ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is a distraction. Let’s get rid of this policy and get on with defeating Al Qaeda.”
Knights Out also joined a coalition of leading organizations and activists to issue an open letter to the news media demanding that reports on DADT remain accurate and fair. The letter referenced a comprehensive review, published by Media Matters, of the myths and falsehoods media conservatives have pushed in their efforts to prevent a repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law.
Add to Washington’s voice the Joint Chiefs Chair Adm. Mullen, Secretary of Defense Gates, and testimony of several commanders along with numerous polls and studies supporting repeal, it shows the complete disconnect from reality.
When Sen. Carl Levin revealed that he feared a vote on DADT would fail (if it’s in the defense authorization bill, I’d like to see how that’s possible), the first thing that came to my mind was — you know what? Let it come down to a vote and see exactly who is on the side of Elaine “insane flow chart” Donnelly, Tony Perkins and John McCain. I’m tired of the excuses, dodges and inaction. Tie these politicians to the Doyenne of Discrimination and fantasist of lesbian rapes in the showers.
I want these elected officials on the record so constituents can discuss with them the foolishness of this policy and their utterance of the reality that gays and lesbians are already serving, many openly, in the ranks now. They simply do not want to be discharged for being who they are. They have served alongside gay and lesbian service members from other countries.
Their constituents can hand them that Media Matters primer and start working on them to acually pass this in the light of day.
4 Comments
QuestionsIs there precedent for writing things like this into the underlying bill? I may be wrong, but the Local Law Enforcement Act [hate crimes] was offered as an amendment, under the arcane rules that determine who can and cannot offer amendments, etc.
Also, is a ‘moratorium’ completely off the table, if that “sounds” more reasonable and can get sixty votes? Doesn’t it depend on how the language of the bill is written? For instance, “A suspension of {insert legal reference to DADT} until such time as Congress fully deauthorizes the use of military force, as outlined in public law {insert reference to AUMF}.
Some of the other details in the SLDN’s model repeal legislation could be included, perhaps …
The existing language ….
… of the House repeal bill….[which was being promoted by 100% of Gay, Inc. for the last five years until the White House, seeing that repeal was, ooops, being taken SERIOUSLY now began to fear midterm vote losses and began to yank on the strings of their gay puppets to muck it all up again by distractions about the allegedly new found horror of a freeze]….could be attached as a rider/markup/amendment to the defense authorization bill as the hate crimes bill was.
In short, the typical process is both houses create their own def auth bill, and a joint committee works out any differences, creating a joint bill both houses vote on. So Lieberman’s bill could be attached in the Senate the same way.
McShame is apopletic about this because just the respective Armed Services Committees could do that which would then require the entire body to vote TO TAKE OUT.
From the Feb. 2nd hearing:
Finally, I’m sorry I have to repeat this again, and mean no disrepect, but it is simply not accurate to equate the positions of Gates, Mullen, and their commanders with Sgt. Washington.
Unlike them, I don’t see Sgt. Washington saying anything about a conducting a “study” first or asking troops and their families for permission to repeal or delaying repeal at least a year which….ooops….just happens to be AFTER midterm elections AKA likely loss of Democratic control of Congress = NO repeal study or no study.
It’s time to admit it: Gates played us. Whether or not that was at Obama’s explicit direction is another question. But played we were.
Too often it’s said “we’re fighting 2 wars” – but our LGBT troops are fighting3 – the need to pretend about who they are in the face of this enshrined bigotry.
It’s interesting to see that the Marine commandant is the high profile person who appears most afraid of this change – for all their much vaunted toughness (sorry, I was Army 20 odd years ago, the rivalry remains)
It’s funny/sad to know that if they got an order to go wipe out a village they wouldn’t need a year to study the issue – they’d pack up and get on with the mission.
It’s a Marine Tradition…
…bigotry and ignorant asshattery, at least among its commandants, traditionally behind even other military commanders.
A. Philip Randolph, mentor to Black gay civil rights giant Bayard Rustin, leads a 1941 protest.
Current Commandant James Conway, who refused to play in his testimony to the Senate this week the charade of semi-acceptance of repeal his fellow Chiefs have, admitted that in a speech at last year’s NAACP Centennial Convention.
He went on to brag that things quickly got better, but failed to mention that the Marines were forced to allow Blacks to enlist, that there were still only two “Negro” units in the Corps by the end of WWII, and they continued to segregate Blacks for years afterward. At least he was smart enough not to say this week:
“If it were a question of having a Marine Corps of 5,000 heterosexuals or 250,000 Sodomites, I would rather have the 5,000.”
I’m sure he was very proud that the first American to be wounded in Operation Desert Storm was a Marine, who received a Purple Heart for having one of his legs blown off…until he found out Eric Alva is gay.
Perry and the other first Black Marines were trained at Montford Point in North Carolina, now called Camp Johnson after the late Sergeant Major, Gilbert H. “Hashmark” Johnson. Here’s a short documentary on their history.