bye-bye military segregation

[mckitterick]

...and with that an archaic, hateful law is off our books!

‎"Don't ask, don't tell" is repealed in historic vote.

Soldiers discharged due to the rule (18,000 since Clinton) can now re-join the military. Eight Republicans even voted for dropping it. The times, they are a-changin'.

Chris

Comments

[saycestsay.livejournal.com]

I am pleased beyond belief that DADT is off the books

BUT

it's not an archaic law. The law before DADT was "we will actively ferret out gay and dishonorably discharge them." Believe it or not, DADT was a reasonable step forward... and yes it caused problems but not on the previous scale. I'm PANICKED that in the vacuum left by the repeal we'll go back to catch and release :(

As in any civil rights situation we gain in increments. I haven't heard of any new protections in place. Are there?

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Right, I understand that this was Clinton's step toward something better, but it was still absurd that we'd have to incrementally enable rights for our citizens. The fact that gay people still cannot marry... makes me disgusted that hasn't been changed yet.

I hadn't considered this might cause freak-outs among the crazy anti-gay types leading to going back to the old gay-hunting days. One assumes not, because the military is now charged with researching and implementing the new policy over time, and it allows variation among the branches of the military (some branches are more worried than others).

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

You don't think they repealed DADT but forgot to also get rid of the existing rule against gays in the US military, do you?

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Now there's a nightmare scenario. I can't find anything that speaks definitively whether or not the original rule went out the window when DADT came into force....

[tully01.livejournal.com]

It wasn't an actual rule, other than Article 125 (UCMJ code against sodomy). It was a policy that deemed homosexuality "incompatible with military service." It went out the door with DADT, I believe.

Article 125 still applies, but has already been constricted (in non-gay sodomy cases) to the scope of things lying outside of the liberty exceptions of Lawrence v. Texas. And gays in the military should continue keeping their heads down until the repeal has been implemented, as it is still in effect until repeal works through all the hoops.