I support GetEqual’s goals…
…but this threat and the way it was worded is a TERRIBLE idea which obligates the Senators to be defensive and take the attitude: “If I give in to this what will someone else demand I do?”

Love this, love this.

We all have to rememberthat direct action is threatening.  It’s purpose is to move those off the fence one way or the other and make a commitment.

Yes, it’s ‘upsetting’ isnt’ it. Provokes EMOTIONS! Well so does having to live the 'results' of DADT. A law those congreemen put into effect and refuse to repeal.

Here is link to twitpic if you want to share.http://twitpic.com/1lvyvy

That link won’t work for me … try http://tinyurl.com/252w2ba

A question came to mindI am anxious for DADT to be gone, but after AZ racial profiling Law, and the inability for Congress to do more than one thing at a time….would LGBTs be willing to give the green light to Immigration Reform before repeal of DADT repeal?
We LGBTs have repeatedly said we need better outreach to Black and Brown communities, this seems like a way to put our money where our mouth is, and perhaps show we will be an ally who not only has another’s back, but will sacrifice something we have worked for decade on, because the foul nature of AZ has made the needs of Latin@s more immediate.
I’d like to hear other’s opinions.

Next on the Democratic Agendais Wall Street Reform, then Climate Change, and then immigration reform.
I agree that we should help lobby for immigration reform (that includes UAFA), but without buying into the one issue at a time mindset.
DADT repeal is at a very critical stage over the month or so if it is going to get included in the Defense Authorization Bill.  We know the Congress is going to be more conservative after November.  We can’t delay DADT repeal or we risk losing the opportunity for years to come.  That said I don’t think we can do an about face as a community because 1) we’re too fired up over this and 2) there is no central command.  You’d have to convince each group whether its Get Equal, or the SLDN, or CRANE, or HERO, or Knights Out, Equality Across America, or HRC, or so many other that now is the time to wait on a 1 by 1 basis.  And then you’d have to start working on individuals too.  Honestly, I believe the best thing we can do to help make sure that other important issues get taken up is do everything we can to speed up the process of DADT repeal, rather than delay it.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

WHY THE NEXT 30 DAYS IS A CRITICAL:
• Servicemember’s Legal Defense Networkand other coalition voices are urging the President to include repeal in the Administration’s defense budget recommendations, but also to voice his support as we work to muster the 15 critical votes needed on the Senate Armed Services Committee to include repeal.
• The House and Senate Armed Services Committees will markup the Defense Authorization bill in a few short weeks.
• The Defense Authorization bill represents our best legislative vehicle to bringing repeal to the president’s desk. It also was the same vehicle used to pass DADT in 1993.
LAYOUT FOR REPEAL / HOUSE AND SENATE TRACKS:
• Sen. Mark Udall told the Denver Post the committee was “within a vote or two” of including repeal in the Defense Authorization bill. Udall is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
• Rep. Jared Polis, who holds a key position on the House Rules Committee, told the Denver Post he is willing to help insert a similar provision in the House version of the Defense Authorization bill with the help of Rep. Patrick Murphy, who is the lead sponsor of the House repeal bill.
EXPECTED CALENDAR DATES:
• The House Armed Services Committee markup of the Defense Authorization bill is expected May 19.
• The Senate Armed Services Committee markup of the Defense Authorization bill is expected the week of May 26.
WHAT REPEAL ADVOCATES ARE HEARING:
•The House may move the Defense Authorization bill for a floor vote as early as the week of May 24.
WHITE HOUSE SIGNALS REASON FOR CONCERN:
•White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs signaled from the podium that the president is likely not going to push for repeal this year.

Let’s think about that a second…The Arizona law is now three days old.  DADT went into effect in 1993.  In Arizona only one person that we know of has been handcuffed due to his inability to prove his citizenship when the police demanded. Contrast that to 13,500 service people who have had their careers stripped from them, and keep in mind that number is increasing at the rate of 3 a day.
As a Vietnam vet who knows full well what it is like to serve while being forced to live in the closet, I frankly have to say that our day in the barrel should have been over long, long ago.
I’m sorry, but as I move into senior citizen status I am no longer willing to to see our needs shuffled aside for the newest thing that needs to be taken care of first.  No more Mr. Nice Gay here.  

Let’s think about that a minuteThe Arizona law is now three days old.  DADT went into effect in 1993.  In Arizona only one person that we know of has been handcuffed due to his inability to prove his citizenship when the police demanded. Contrast that to 13,500 service people who have had their careers stripped from them, and keep in mind that number is increasing at the rate of 3 a day.
As a Vietnam vet who knows full well what it is like to serve while being forced to live in the closet, I frankly have to say that our day in the barrel should have been over long, long ago.
I’m sorry, but as I move into senior citizen status I am no longer willing to to see our needs shuffled aside for the newest thing that needs to be taken care of first.  No more Mr. Nice Gay here.  

Sorry about the double post

Sorry, that was terrible execution.I know we’ve all run out of patience, but that yellow card was a terrible idea.  It will not lead anybody who is currently on the fence or opposed or dragging their feet to come over to our side.  It is far more likely to alienate them.  Nobody responds well to threats, least of all congresspeople.
Ask Barney Frank or Tammy Baldwin how they would react if they received something like this (on any issue).
Has GET=QUAL consulted with our allies?  Maybe they should, or they risk being counter-productive and embarrassing.

Thanks for the responses Paul and JakeI know my question posed a dilemma without easy comfortable choices, and I appreciate service members and LGBT people who have fought long an hard in the DADT trenches. There very likely is a small window before November when Congress may look a lot less progressive, and even less will be accomplished for either LGBTs or Latin@s.
I’m furious with AZ, and maybe that’s not the time to figure out legislative scheduling. I can’t help thinking after prop 8 and the finger pointing and riffs caused against whole hosts of minorities, and needing to build bridges to FIX this crap so Republicans don’t just pit one scapegoat against another scapegoat and make us animals scratching each others eyes out over CRUMBS.

You’re right.I think we should never demand anything, we should never put ourselves out there and mean business, and we should never, ever back up our demands with real action.  We should just ask cutely and politely until 2035.

Who says Congress can only do one thing at a time?

And sitting there and asking politely with no results is helpful how?

You are either unfamiliar with my history of posts…
…or have forgotten them, but, frankly, I’m tired of people reading into others’ comments what there is no evidence they intend. As if your false either/or applies.
1. I was calling for civil disobedience on this blog and others at least a year ago against the betrayals of this administration. Not often as I was skeptical that there was anyone willing to do it. Thankfully, GetEqual have proven that not true. And here and on other sites, I have repeatedly urged, “Out of the blogs and into the streets.” That would not require civil disobedience, but it is definitely not “sitting there and asking politely.” It disgusts me that many professional gays still think that’s all they can or should do.
I live on the West Coast, but if I still lived in DC as I once did, I would have joined in some of GetEqual’s actions. But I traveled there for last fall’s National Equality March, and two huge antiwar demonstrations and to protest Nixon’s second inaugural decades before. [Sorry, I'm old.]
My personal greatest act of civil disobedience was refusing the draft. That didn’t get you a couple of hours in jail and a slap on the wrist. It resulted in indictment by a federal grand jury, arrest by the FBI, and would have resulted into upwards of a five-year federal prison sentence had they not been forced to drop the charge on a technicality.
2. I’m proud to say that Dan Choi and I are friends. I was one of those he called for input before his first arrest and I met with him afterward, and some of his advisors, as I happened to be in DC, and, among other things, discussed future actions, and drove fellow arrestee Jim Pietrangelo around to two different jails to retrieve his personal possessions.
3. However, as I’ve told Dan, like every other thing we do, there’s no point in direct action, whether or not it includes civil disobedience, if it’s not done well. Motion is not always the same as movement forward. The still much-vaunted “Join the Impact” demonstrations were textbook examples of people confusing a circle jerk, however large, with action to effect change.
White House Arrest 1: BRILLIANT!
Confronting Obama in L.A.: BRILLIANT!
White House Arrest 2: BRILLIANT!
Confronting House Ed & Labor Committee: BRILLIANT!
Delivery of markers to HELC Chair’s office: BRILLIANT!
However, they have made two mistakes. The first was scheduling the sit-ins in Pelosi’s DC and SF offices on the same day as Dan and Jim’s first arrest at the White House. There are enough competing stories for MSM media attention one has absolutely no control over to CREATE competition for airtime for yourself. It was not that they were multiple actions on the same day but that they were about two different issues, DADT and ENDA. We only fool ourselves by imagining that hoi polloi can hold two ideas in their heads at the same time.
The second, and far more serious, is this threat card which can, at most, ONLY serve to make the proverbial wasps [no pun intended] mad. Actually sitting in at their office, outside their homes, etc., also makes them mad but it also has the CORE factor of this type of direct action: disrupting their lives. Ya think the Montgomery bus company, Trailways, Greyhound, Woolworths, and other targets of black civil rights direct action changed simply because protestors made them mad? Of course not. It was because they made them mad and unable to carry on business as usual.
This ill-conceived, ill-executed card is just a provocative variation on Spam.

I think the message may be being confused with the tacticsNo one is advocating for GetEqual to shut up and sit down.  The criticism is that handing out flyers, threatening Senators with direct action, vice actual direct action, does not get very far.  In some cases it leads to stiffening of positions, that need to change.  

I understand the response to implied threatsBut politicians HATE drama. Look at the great lengths Obama goes to to avoid fights. He’s still kissing GOP ass 15 months after they’ve called him every name under the sun.
The beauty is GetEQUAL doesn’t speak for us. After events like the sit-in, a milquetoast like Joe S is in a position to waltz in and say, “Oh, that’s terrible! HRC would never do anything… now, let me help you with your problem…”
and maybe for once the politician will actually listen.  

Umm…It’s only been a week since the flyers have been handed out. Give them some time to deliver some of this direct action before criticizing them for failing to deliver.