After nearly a year of review, the Pentagon is set to release its report on ending the ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military. It was not easy getting here. President Obama and his administration worked at its own deliberate pace to lay the groundwork that saw a Defense Department that recoiled in horror at a similar effort in 1993 openly embrace the change 17 years later.
The slow pace led many in the gay community to question Obama's commitment to ending the shameful policy. But there is no question that we wouldn't be at this historic moment without his leadership. And that leadership will continue to be needed until don't ask don't tell is repealed. That means doing everything possible to secure Republican votes to ensure passage and to steel the spine of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) so that he brings the measure to the floor for a vote as part of the defense authorization bill. Nothing is guaranteed.
In this second "Inside Voice" anthology I reprise the pieces on don't ask don't tell (and one commentary on MSNBC) that make the case for its repeal and for the president's strategy to get it done…
CHAPTER THREE: The American people
Poll after poll shows that the nation believes gay men and lesbians should be able to serve their nation openly…
Read complete report:
Pentagon study dismisses risk of openly gay troops
By Anne Flaherty – Associated Press,
November 30, 2010 – Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Pentagon study on gays in the military has determined that overturning the law known as "don't ask, don't tell" might cause some disruption at first but would not create any widespread or long-lasting problems…
The study found that 70 percent of troops surveyed believed that repealing the law would have mixed, positive or no effect, while 30 percent predicted negative consequences. Opposition was strongest among combat troops, with at least 40 percent saying it was a bad idea. That number climbs to 46 percent among Marines.
The study also draws a strong correlation between troops who have worked with a gay service member and those who support repeal. According to the assessment, 92 percent of troops who have served with someone they believed to be gay thought that their unit's ability to work together was either very good, good, or neither good nor poor.
One person familiar with the report said it will show that military commanders believe gay and lesbian troops have a strong desire to fit in and feel accepted by their units. The report will also show that gay service members currently serving in the military have expressed a patriotic desire to serve, and want to be subject to the same rules as other service members.
The survey is based on responses by some 115,000 troops and 44,200 military spouses to more than a half million questionnaires distributed last summer by an independent polling firm…
Read complete report:
AP: Pentagon study backs end to 'don't ask, don't tell
Gregg Zoroya, Associated Press,
November 30, 2010 – USA TODAY
A Pentagon study being released Tuesday says gay troops could serve openly without hurting the military's ability to fight, a conclusion sure to ignite a debate next month on Capitol Hill over repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Seventy percent of U.S. troops surveyed predicted that gay and lesbians serving openly in the military would have a positive affect, according to officials familiar with the 10-month study who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the findings are due out until later Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — who both support repealing the 17-year-old law — will lead a slate of top military leaders from all services who will face questioning about the policy later this week before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Read more:
AUTHORITARIAN ≠ AUTHORITATIVE - Benedict XVI UNSUBSTANTIATED Antigay Teachings – November 29, 2010
30 years of Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s - Directives To Hierarchy – To make - THREATS, SILENCE, HARM AND DISPOSAL of Catholic Personnel Supportive of LGBT Adults and Children
“If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.”
Emile Zola
What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
Luke 12:3
Ignorance, Arrogance, Indifference - Propaganda - BENEDICT XVI & BISHOPS - Child Sexual Abuse COVER-UPS – November 27, 2010
“Ratzinger, Hurley, Maida & Accomplices - Kids Are Being Hurt!!! (Sequential Order of Reactions)” November 28, 2010
Benedict XVI - INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA
"It [homosexuality] remains something that is against the Nature that God originally willed.” - UNSUBSTANTIATED ANTIGAY STATEMENT – Selective Attention – Dissociation – Process of Projection - permits EXTERNALIZATION of unconscious conflicts - rejecting own unacceptable urges by rejecting lesbians and gay men (who symbolize those urges) without consciously recognizing the urges as own. - PLANK & SPECK - Luke 6:40-42 & GALILEO – November 24, 2010
400,000 Anti-gay marriage DVDs - $1 million Nienstedt - Minnesota October 29, 2010 - RELIGION & ETHICS PBS – video (NP)
HOMOPHOBIC ORGANIZATION
Part 2: 'I Hope that the Church Will at Last Confront the Issue of Homophobia' | Dream Turns Into Nightmare | Senior Theologian In The Catholic Church
November 22, 2010
Spiegel International
WIDESPREAD HOMOPHOBIA in the Catholic Church | Theologian says much of clergy is gay – by Derek Scally, November 22, 2010 – The Irish Times
GAY YOUTH SUICIDE | BENEDICT XVI & BISHOPS Child Sexual Abuse Cover-ups – Negligence Protecting (1) Children & (2) LGBT Children | Family of Rutgers suicide victim lends name to bill – November 19, 2010 – CNN
"ANGELS IN AMERICA" - Benedict XVI & Hierarchy – “No Angels In The Vatican” - Ignorance about human sexuality is extremely harmful to children.
“Priest banned from writing"
It Is Okay To Be Irish – But Just Don’t Act On It!?! –
– by Patsy Mcgarry,
November 13, 2010 – The Irish Times
GAY YOUTH CATHOLIC SILENCING | The student newspaper editorial Benilde-St. Margaret's doesn't want you to see - By David Brauer, November 15, 2010 – MinnPost.com
Dehumanization – “The Lucifer Effect” by Philip Zimbardo (2007) | BENEDICT XVI & BISHOPS - Child Sexual Abuse COVER-UPS & Implicit Child Abuse of LGBT Children
“Someday,
maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of
all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.”
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