Needs editingThere is no “Speaker of the Senate”. Reid’s title is Majority Leader or Leader for short. This is the sort of detail you’d want to get right in a political consulting business I would think.

Typical….To be brutally honest I’ll be quite happy to see this stand-alone bill fail as well, because it doesn’t go far enough.  A Bill could be used to repeal the DADT policy, while also giving the Military a separate congressional order that would deal with the military’s internal medical policies that ban Transgender & Intersex folk from serving.  It’s doable, though all of the gay “rights” orgs are too greedy to do more than focus directly on their own. This is even happening in the courts, as not a single gay org has even attempted to bring the case of a dismissed transgender service-member forward.
I want to see DADT repealed, though not if it means that non cisgender folks are hit with DADT conditions for the next 20 years or more.
This incremental shit in terms of rights where gays get first priority needs to stop.  Fight both battles now, or piss off as you aren’t fighting for real “Equality”, just your own self interests.

HuffPosigh I didn’t notice the Huffington Post link. A red flag for inaccuracy sadly.

Thank youIt’s wrong on his HuffPo article as well.

Editthank you for pointing out that I mistakenly referred to Majority Leader Reid as Speaker Reid- and that such distracted you so as to ignore the gist of the post.
Guilty as charged.

an asideI don’t think- right now- that the stand-alone bill has a snowball’s chance in hell of passing. The Administration’s priorities are (i) tax cuts and (ii) ratification of the START Treaty.
Plain English: our civil rights are taking a back seat to ratification of a treaty which could wait until 2011. If repeal were a priority, the Senate would be staying in session until January 02, 2011 11:59:50pm EST instead of rushing to adjourn this Friday. God forbid the POTUS would dare call a special session of Congress to consider passage of a landmark step forward in the dynamic evolution of civil rights in America. Instead, repeal of DADT is yet another legislative “priority” headed to the political graveyard of abandoned promises. It’s 1992 redux. It was perfectly appropriate the the President drug out Bill Clinton to shill for tax cut legislation last week.

The days of writing letters, making phone calls, attending rallies on the Mall and expecting the HRC to define the limits of LGBT activism are dead. Look at the streets of London. Spontaneous demonstrations of civil disobedience with all gloves off by college students from every station. The House of Commons prompted to engage in a particulary-vigorous debate over the uproar in the streets; PM David Cameron’s smooth demeanor wilting.

Remember ACT UP: Silence = Death; red paint splattered on the steps of St. Patrick’s? Covert actions against high-profile targets (no- not death squads..) The 1992 demonstrations which erupted in LA following Republican Governor Wilson’s veto of civil rights legislation known as AB 101. (See http://tinyurl.com/29ubxof .) Those collective actions- esp. by ACT UP- had profound effects on public policy.
I admit to being as complicit as anyone for my contribution to the passivity of the LGBT community. Where is the anger? Why do we tolerate 18 years’of pandering with nary a peep? Haven’t we learned from the history of civil rights struggles? Are we too comfortable to put any skin in the game?
I don’t have the answers. I am deeply troubled that we are failing ourselves and generations behind us. Organizations like GetEqual are attempting to mobilize but are subjected to pointless, juvenile criticism from all the splintered self-interests in the LGBT community.

And therein lies a lingering problem. Trying to coalesce the LGBT community is akin to pivoting a battleship. An exercise in herding cats. A waste of energy. And the enemy of progress.

Years ago a wise sage pointed out to me that one who would attack a transgendered person would also attack me. He was right. Acknowledging that simple fact realigned my narrow definition of inclusion in the broader gay community. There are no Class A gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered persons, queers, fairies or whatever label you wear. For all of us, we are Class B citizens. Pink Triangles invisible but embedded nonetheless. Until we put aside petty arguments over who’s the smartest person in the room, who’s the most aggrieved class and the like- then we are missing the opportunity to harness the defining characteristic we all share: exile on the fringes of a supposed liberal democratic republic. Our passivity does nothing to mitigate the chronic realities that young gay people are dying at their own hands and that all of us are being attacked more than any other minority cohort. Whether you drive a BMW or ride the subway, you share second class rights.

Our plight isn’t getting better. We’re moving sideways. If you were around in 1992, have you gained any modicum of civil equality/recognition from your government? From some politician who asks for you vote and your money in return for…..SALT ratification? Did you notice Senators Kerry and McCain smiling as they walked from the well of the Senate arm in arm as the roll call vote was taking place which doomed DADT?

Do you, like me, edit the Pledge of Allegiance by reciting “….with liberty and justice for some?”
I don’t have the answers- but I’ll be damned if I’m not asking questions we should be considering and discussing in small local cells better-suited to formulate tactical action plans.

It is time to burn the old playbook. As a community we’re so gifted- bright, artistic, courageous and determined. The great majority of us have had to work harder in life to catch up with First Class Americans.
We aren’t progenies from the Land of Broken Toys. We’re just a little different- like a patch of Four Leaf Clovers.

jim neal
jim@jameswneal.com

I think if nothing is done on DADT in this lame duck session it’ll be 6 years at least before it ever comes up again for a serious vote. If Obama continues on his present course the Democrats are going to face another losing election in 2012 and a utterly depressing 4 years with the possibility of the Republicans controlling both houses of Congress and the White House.  

Interesting InsightI think with any blog entry an important piece of the conversation that it spawns is answering questions like… Does this new insight suggest a change in behaviors?  And what happens next?
Some blog entries end with a call to action like call your senator at this phone number, or show up at a rally at this location and time.  For those, the answers to the what do we do now and what happens next questions are pretty obvious.
When Pam & other bloggers recently called for the resignation of Joe from HRC, my addition to conversation was, okay, a shakeup with HRC would be great, but it “still feels like its only half the conversation if we say get rid of someone, but don’t say who we’d support” especially when one of the criticisms we are calling them out on is a lack of community understanding/support.  And sure enough another blog entry came along to have that discussion and various names and desired leadership qualities emerged from that discussion.
But sometimes the answer isn’t so obvious, especially when its dealing with new or deeper insights.  And that is, I believe, the case for this discussion.

That yarn is simply not the reality. The cloture motion was doomed from the moment Speaker Reid impulsively decided to bring the vote before the Senate today. Here’s the real skinny as best I can piece it together.
Senator Collins did not soften her conditions. She was able to make a symbolic Aye vote because she knew — as did others — that she had cover from her Republican colleagues, either or both of Senators Murkowski and Brown. In turn, Speaker Reid cared less about how the arch-conservative Senator Manchin voted. It didn’t matter.  The Speaker wanted to clear the docket and get DADT out of the way. Other legislation in the pipeline takes priority, namely the tax cut bill and ratification of the START Treaty.

Where do we go from here?  What is the actionable part of having this new insight?
-Do we need to be mounting a full scale campaign calling on our senators to stay in session past the end of the week?
-What do you see DADT repeal’s chances as in 2011?  Do we need to stick with the legislative push and redouble our efforts for 2011?
-Do we need to turn our efforts away from lobbying our elected officials and towards support groups like GetEqual?  And hold more rallies, vigils, protests, and events?
-Should we turn towards groups like Lambda Legal, the ACLU, and maybe even LCR (okay maybe not since they’d be as apt to use their resources against equality as for it) in a focus on winning equality through the courts?
If we’re burning the old playbook, which this behind the scenes accounting suggests we probably ought to do, then we need to think about what comes next… writing the new playbook.  Given your inside look, which of the paths laid out above (or other paths if you have other ideas) should go in the new playbook?

Let’s speak plainlyReid doesn’t like Gays. They alienate his LDS base. Obama’s not too keen on them either, they alienate his AA Evangelical base. Two groups that actually turn up to vote in numbers larger than their absolute size would indicate, and both of whom might well not just stay at home, but vote GOP if slighted.
As long as they can tell their bases in private that they’re only playing lip-service, and to watch their actions, and ignore their words… while telling the Gays to listen to their words, and ignore their lack of progress against the Big Bad GOP… they maximise their vote.
Nothin personal – just business.
Forget about “principle”: the ENDA debacle showed that Gays were willing to jettison those to get what they wanted. The DNC will come back for you later, incremental progress….
I admit that the extraordinary lengths Reid has gone to to make sure DADT repeal fails, and Obama’s Scorched Earth policy in the courts, has made things a bit too obvious.  

That reinforces the ideathat the legislative route isn’t working for us.  So where do you feel we should aim our efforts now?

Stop being defensiveYou can’t credibly speak as an “insider” if you can’t even get Harry Reid’s title right.

AgreedIt’s now or, at best, probably another decade or more.
Let’s also not forget that the same goes for ENDA, which the Democrats buried and killed in a House subcommittee in late 2009.

Cut the ENDA snarkunless you want to re-open the whole debate, as the gender identity provisions are the principal reason Dems buried ENDA and killed it. Some of us have been willing to look past that, but, please, re-kindle the fight by being a snarky winner.

Actually, the latest Pew poll showsthat a slim majority of black evangelicals are in favor of DADT repeal.

If one makes a mistake & it’s pointed out,it creates a much better impression if one just admits it & doesn’t flavor the admission with sarcasm.

Personally, I don’t care about the Congress Crittersbackroom deals.  All I care about is results.  If they can’t or won’t vote for ALL OF THEIR CONSTITUENTS then they aren’t upholding their oath of office and should be impeached, plain and simple.  Either move forward and do something for your constituents, or get out of the game.  I don’t care what the WH priorities are and I don’t care about these people’s bigotry influencing their rabble rousing and dog and pony shows for the public.  Stop wasting everyone’s time trying to triangulate and position yourself for the next election and get down to business and fucking vote yes or no and then get on with business.

evangelics don’t voteat least not here in WA, where voting propensity among evangelicals is low.

Great questionJake.
(LOL- look at the time stamp on my comment above. I wrote that after I had wiped out the entirety of my original comment, failing to include any conclusion. Thanks for popping me.)
So here’s a shot at responding to your questions (in order) and the larger action agenda:
1. No. It’s too late to mount any campaign to keep the Senate in session. Regardless, all that would engender is lip service.
2. 2011? No way, a waste of energy, very inefficient. The 111th Congress was arguably our last shot on goal in the foreseeable future. DADT is- I believe- now in the hands of the Courts. I have written off Congress and the Administration- unless someone can devise a way to partner an equality campaign with the banking/pharma and/or oil industries?
3. Absolutely. Lobbying hasn’t yielded jack. For 18 years…..    

Piecing together a new paradigm which borrows from failures of the past, lessons from history and acknowledgment that “the only constant in life is change” is not an all-or-nothing proposition mind you. Do you think that the model of relying on the lobbying, donor-supported advocacy efforts of LGBT organizations has failed to yield results, anywhere near acceptable returns on the investment of resources? I do not. I’m uplifted more so by what I watch in the streets of London, Paris and Tehran: people using their boots and their mouths. There is no sustained, ongoing effort at adopting civil disobedience as the key strategic platform for demanding, not asking for, equality in America- and doing so on a more local grass roots level and less-structured basis.

GetEqual is at the forefront of embracing a new form of engagement. They’re willing to get their nails dirty, mix it up and take people out of their comfort zone. I understand that they are planning to increase their emphasis on going local with their efforts, aka grass roots. Thus far, only a small number of GetEqual activists have been engaged in a lot of actions around the country. They need numbers and organization at the local level. From personal experiences in such actions in California back in the 1990s, I’m confident they can be extremely impactful. Today- it’s easier than ever to amplify a small action across the national media given the attraction of cable news to controversy.
Think local, co-ordinate global.
4. Legal challenges? Boies/Olson are taking the gay marriage debate to the SCOTUS, and those much-maligned Log Cabin Republicans are the only LGBT special interest group that has managed to stop DADT- if only for a day- over the past 18 years. When Secy. Gates voices concern over a Court-imposed overturn of DADT, he’s alluding to that injunction. And- I understand that more legal challenges to DADT are in the wings.
That flank has a life unto itsef.
__

In sum, burning the old playbook translates into a a re-architecture of both the dialogue and the action. Stop thinking in-the-box and start innovating. There’s a long chain of history chronicling the impact of disobedient- often violent- behavior on social change.

It’s not melodramatic to continually remind people that gay teens are killing themselves, gay people are being attacked and many many more gay people live in fear for their jobs as much today as ever. Especially in the little pockets of America where people don’t read the NY Times daily.
Telling them “it gets better” isn’t enough. We need to make it better. Silence is a cousin to complicity.

IMHO those who have the strength, the courage and the temperament to hit the front lines will be more effective than any donor-funded, top-down organization.
Don’t join, incubate.

Nope… now the momentum is with the courts.SLDN filed suite in NoCal for 3 officers today and will continue to do so 'all around the country!'   http://tinyurl.com/2czv5ov

“This filing is a shot across the bow as we prepare to pursue and sustain an aggressive far reaching litigation strategy if the Senate fails to act this month to repeal the law.  This dispute can be resolved by Congress or by the courts.  With this filing we put Congress on notice that a cadre of service members and our national legal team stand ready to litigate strategically around the country.  The plaintiffs are three service members who want to serve their country again.  They represent some of our best and brightest who were fired because of who they are, despite their decorated records.  More than 14,000 have already lost their jobs and the investigations and discharges still continue.  We are also preparing litigation on behalf of young people who would enter the armed forces to serve our country but for this terrible law.  Another suit we’re working on involves clients discharged under ‘Don’t Ask’ who want to enter the reserves or a guard unit, and we plan to file such cases early next year if Congress fails to act.  Clearly there is an urgent need for the Senate to act on legislation this week.”

Here are the FIRST THREE of ? #.  
You go SLDN and all the imminent plaintiffs!
PS. If you have any funds left post Holidays, I do believe SLDN will need them.

ABOUT THE PLANTIFFS:
Plaintiff Michael D. Almy served for thirteen years in the United States Air Force, including four deployments to the Middle East.  He is a highly trained communications officer.  During his thirteen-year Air Force career, former Major Almy received numerous military awards and decorations.  In 2006, he was discharged from the Air Force under DADT.
Plaintiff Anthony J. Loverde served for seven years in the Air Force.  He is a trained C-130 Loadmaster and Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory Technician.  During his seven-year Air Force career, former Staff Sergeant Loverde received numerous military awards and decorations.  In 2008, he was discharged from the Air Force under DADT.  He is currently a contractor serving in Iraq, doing effectively the same job with many of his old coworkers, as an openly gay man.
Plaintiff Jason D. Knight served for a total of five years in the United States Navy.  He is a trained Cryptological Technician Interpretive, Linguist.  During his five-year Navy career, former Petty Officer Second Class Knight received numerous military awards and decorations.  Mr. Knight has the unique distinction of being discharged twice under DADT.  In 2005, he was discharged from the Navy under DADT.  Mr. Knight was recalled to active duty in 2006 but was discharged again in 2007 under DADT.

Session not over at the end of the week potentiallyhttp://firstread.msnbc.msn.com…

Lame-duck session likely won’t end this Friday
From NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell and Alicia Jennings
Senate leaders from both parties just indicated that they expect Senate business to go beyond this Friday — which was the expected get-away date for the holidays.
No specifics yet and not a certainty, but that is the general guidance.

What if all the gays outed themselves at once?What if all the gays outed themselves at once?
Would there be enough gays in uniform that an en masse self outing would bring the services to a halt?
What if enough “allies” did the same?

Re. Stand-Alone Billsee http://tinyurl.com/22kepza