Don’t ask, don’t tell, but change is coming
Back on Jan. 26, Army 2nd Lt. Sandy Tsao wrote a letter to her new commander in chief, Barack Obama. It said, in part:
“Today is Chinese New Year day. I hope it will bring good fortune to you and your newly elected office. Today is also the day I inform my chain of command of who I am. One of the seven Army values is integrity. It means choosing to do the right thing no matter what the consequences may be. As a Christian, this also means living an honest life…”
As part of living an honest life, a life of integrity, Tsao felt compelled to tell her commanding officers that she was gay. As part of military policy and federal law, her commanding officers felt compelled to dismiss her from the service. Tsao knew that would be the outcome. As she wrote Obama:
“We have the best military in the world and I would like to continue to be part of it. My mother can tell you it is my dream to serve our country. I have fought and overcome many barriers to arrive at the point I am at today. This is the only battle I fear I may lose. Even if it is too late for me, I do hope, Mr. President, that you will help us to win the war against prejudice so that future generations will continue to work together and fight for our freedoms regardless of race, color, gender, religion, national origin or sexual orientation.”
Last week, the following arrived in the mail to Tsao, on White House stationery:
It’s a nice sentiment. The fact that Obama took the time to respond, and to so explicitly and personally commit to changing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, suggests that he takes it very seriously and intends to follow through.
In the meantime, however, the policy continues to be enforced. Army Lt. Dan Choi, a West Point grad and infantry platoon leader in the New York National Guard who is fluent in Arabic, is being dismissed. Choi, who recently returned from Iraq, forced the issue when he went public about his sexuality in an interview on MSNBC on March 19.
“”I intend fully to fight it tooth and nail,” Choi said upon receiving notice of dismissal. “I believe that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is wrong, and what we really need to be encouraging soldiers to do is to don’t lie, don’t hide, don’t discriminate, and don’t weaken the military. That’s what we need to be promoting.”
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159 comments Add your comment
Susan Myers
May 9th, 2009
8:50 am
Lt. Tsao, I salute you. The change is coming. And not a moment too soon.
DB, Gwinnettian
May 9th, 2009
8:51 am
we really need to be encouraging soldiers to do is to don’t lie, don’t hide, don’t discriminate, and don’t weaken the military
Perfect.
And good for Obama to respond as he has. I expect him to keep his promise.
Cherokee
May 9th, 2009
8:53 am
Yes good for both of them..
Susan Myers
May 9th, 2009
8:57 am
By personalizing the issue, President Obama has moved this from ‘the GAYS in the military!’ to about people who want to serve the country. It’s a huge first step in getting the Congress and the military to realize that this isn’t the hot button issue that the right wing would have them believe it is.
DB, Gwinnettian
May 9th, 2009
9:02 am
Odds on the elapsed time / specific nature of the first anti-gay slur to be issued from one of the resident trolls in this thread?
DB, Gwinnettian
May 9th, 2009
9:05 am
this isn’t the hot button issue that the right wing would have them believe it is.
All the right wing can do with this, at this point, is try to play bits and pieces of the issue to bits and pieces of the base. There is very solid support from Americans, in general, to remove discrimination hurdles for gay folks in the military; however, there remains some softness in that resolve when it’s framed as “should those people be ‘openly gay’ and in the military” or suchlike–in other words, if they can manage to lie about what the military would look like if DADT were taken out back and shot, maybe they can cling on for a little ride, for a little while.
It’ll backfire, it’ll never produce anything more than a very short-term result for righties, but does that ever stop them?
DB, Gwinnettian
May 9th, 2009
9:05 am
Must run. Later, kids.
Redneck Convert
May 9th, 2009
9:07 am
Well, maybe we could keep the gays in the army to clean the bathrooms and such. If we let them stay without some punishment they would be as good as godly rednecks like me. Anyhow, you can’t use Those People as targets anymore because of these civil rights laws so we got to have somebody we can look down on. Might as well be the gays.
Don’t anybody worry we’re running out of people we can blame? I don’t care if this guy that got kicked out could speak towelhead good. It’s more important we go by the Bible. We can make the towelheads we capture learn to speak English before we get the goods from them.
Anyhow, Bookman don’t say nothing about the thunderstorms we’re about to get. It just ruins a weekend on the golf course. I got these new balls from WalMart I want to try out but I don’t want to be fried with a 5 iron in my hand. Have a good weekend everybody.
Mrs. Godzilla
May 9th, 2009
9:17 am
Don’t forget Daniel Choi, National Guardsman…..
Wonder….isn’t there a job in the administration or a congressional office for these fine young Americas?
I Report :-) / You Whine :-(
May 9th, 2009
9:23 am
2nd Lt. Sandy Tsao wrote a letter to her new commander in chief
Anybody wanna bet that letter^^ was written by some hairy 50 year old homo freak from the Daily Kooks?
eewwwww, hahaha.
You can’t believe a damn word you hear from the liberals, if their mouths are open, they are lying.
sick
Susan Myers
May 9th, 2009
9:29 am
Dan Choi…wow! What an inspiration! I can’t think of a better face for the campaign to eliminate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Ray
May 9th, 2009
9:30 am
Really liked the political vent today. For those of you who didn’t read it, ” Now I know why liberals want to save the trees. They believe money grows on them.” Sort of surprised that Cynthia and Bookman would let that Conservative thought run in the AJC. Is there hope? Nahhhhhh!!
I Report :-) / You Whine :-(
May 9th, 2009
9:31 am
Gays are some of the most violent, angry radical extremists you can find, sorta like the way liberals describe white Christians, but for real-
PROP 8 RALLIES TURN VIOLENT PROTESTORS ATTACK BLACKS USE N-WORD WOMAN CARRYING CROSS ATTACK VIDEO
http://binside.typepad.com/binside_tv/2008/11/prop-8-rallies.html
Stomping on a little old lady, how nice.
And how about the getalife cameo, hysterically screaming like a sissy at the little news lady?
SuperDave
May 9th, 2009
9:45 am
“Odds on the elapsed time / specific nature of the first anti-gay slur to be issued from one of the resident trolls in this thread?”
“some hairy 50 year old homo freak from the Daily Kooks?”
Right on cue, as usual.
N-GA
May 9th, 2009
9:55 am
All “Don’t ask, don’t tell” does is reinforce the attitude of many that discrimination is okay…all forms of discrimination.
Just look at the derogatory terms posted here already. Pathetic…but he already knows that. He of the “Christian” values. He has no empathy or tolerance for anyone unlike himself. What a hater!
I served for more than six years on active duty during the Viet Nam conflict. There were many gays and lesbians serving in the same units as I. Everyone knew it, including our CO’s. No problems at all. But you wouldn’t believe the number of rapes (males raping females). Now there is a serious problem!
I Report :-) / You Whine :-(
May 9th, 2009
9:58 am
Here comes the second slur, timekeepers-
Former House Republican and CIA Director Porter J. Goss — who attended the 2002 briefing of Ms. Pelosi — wrote last month in an opinion piece that he was “slack-jawed to read that members claim to have not understood that techniques on which they were briefed were to actually be employed; or that specific techniques such as ‘waterboarding’ were never mentioned.” Mr. Goss described the lawmakers’ claims as “a disturbing epidemic of amnesia.”
The libs on the House intelligence committee apparently thought the CIA invited them over to watch gay sadomasochistic videos, almost like a Barney Frank hearing, of sorts.
I wonder why the CIA wanted the LAWMAKERS to review their enhanced water sports, maybe for like you know, APPROVAL?
AmVet
May 9th, 2009
9:59 am
Back in 1993, DADT, crafted by Clinton and Powell, was brilliant and to me the perfect compromise to end the injustice and farce of the historic policy of outright banning homosexuals in the US military.
Of course, that one word – compromise – never, ever sits well with the puritanical and segregationist Reich-wingers, and many (most?) of them practically blew a gasket when this policy went into effect. I remember well the ensuing firestorm of moronic justifications from the neo-cons. (Funny how they were to soon perfect this “strategy”) One would have thought we had just allowed Negroes to marry white women.
Although the more rational and realistic segments of our progressive society have moved on and learned how to deal with these realities even better, the intransigent fraud conservatives are still stuck on stupid. And still stuck on bigoted.
No surprises there, but it begs the question – who cares?
They are in mortal danger and their very political existence and the viability of their outdated ideology is in doubt. And this is but one of innumerable issues highlights how they are condemning themselves to a self-imposed extinction…
RW-(the original)
May 9th, 2009
10:01 am
DB,
Should you return I’d love to hear your rational that “righties” are rigidly insistent on maintaining Clinton policies or why something that you claim is overwhelmingly supported by the American people can’t be breezed through the Congress.
Taxpayer
May 9th, 2009
10:07 am
Good morning, most. Did most everyone enjoy their Oh So brief respite on last night’s thread from most all that they find offensive in this minuscule corner of our ever-increasingly virtual society. We have sunshine this morning — the real thing. I’m not about to ask if it will last because I’m sure that someone out there will tell me what I do not want to hear. Anyway, everyone should be able to make their own choices without fear of unjust consequences but even if that much were given, there would most likely always be those that would fight forever more to make it not so. (At least, I think that Jean-Luc would probably believe that to be true.) I offer Andy as existence proof of this lasting constant that humanity as a whole seems unable to rid itself of, given that his mindset permeates even this remote outpost of the vast and ever-expanding stretches of virtual space. Other than that, life can be good unless you just do not want it to be so.
Have a good day, most of you.
Bud Wiser
May 9th, 2009
10:12 am
Obama’s spoken words and promises are mostly lies, about ‘eliminating pork’ from the stimulus for instance, so why should anyone expect him to tell the truth just because he writes a cutesy little note?
He comes from the party of drunks, murderers, (Ted Kennedy on both parts) and liars, Nancy Pelosi the latest liar, but Jabberin’ Joe Biden giving her a run for the money, as well as apparently Harry Reid in his dealings with Arlen Spector T-Pa (T for traitor, turncoat, turd, you choose).
So is one supposed to expect the little ‘lovers note’ to be any different? This is almost as stupid as this change we’re getting – changing from the most respected nation on earth to third world status; changing from a history of the line of the presidency where the men all stood firm and proud as the leaders of the most powerful nation on the planet, to in 3 months having a man bowing and grovelling before a sheik and trashing out America while giving speeches on foreign soil; changing the value of our dollar, the American dollar, the standard by which everyone else measures their own monetary worth, into a worthless piece of paper by his outrageous and unchecked spending with no accountability (although I’ll give GW Bush a share of this part too); changing the world recognized status of the First Family from chic and civilized, into outright buffoons by their actions so far with perhaps our greatest allies, the Brits.
Yeah, this is your change you wanted, from prosperous and respected, even feared, to stunningly unthinkable debt, and being laughed at and scorned on the world stage by the very people this moron is trying to ingratiate himself too.
Be proud of that for sure.
SuperDave
May 9th, 2009
10:14 am
Homophobes are really just afraid of their own homosexual tendencies.
Andy the Vulcan
May 9th, 2009
10:22 am
What a sad dark little world Bud lives in… It sounds awful, I’m glad I don’t live there.
ty webb
May 9th, 2009
10:25 am
What’s stopping Obama from overturning Clinton’s DADT? The administration has the votes in a tolerant democrat congress, and will soon have a filibuster proof majority. Who on this board is willing to hold their breath until it’s overturned? Why does Obama feel as though an openly gay soldier should be allowed to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country, but not marry the one they love?
Bud Wiser
May 9th, 2009
10:36 am
Andy the Vulcan, it is the world being painted (or stained, depending upon one’s perception) by the Moron Known as Obama, elevated by the likes of you. I just call it as I see it. If you’re still on those pills that make you continue to separate fact from fiction, then might I suggest the Betty Ford clinic?
Since you live in the twilight zone for now, us crossing paths on reality seem remote, so at least I am safe for now. You on the other hand, well, be very careful where you step, it just might be in another pile of Pelosi lies or Obama crap, and so far it seems that you are unable to tell when you smell of it.
ByteMe
May 9th, 2009
10:50 am
ty: political calculation. He wants to expand health care first and doesn’t want to rile up the Talibaptists over this policy until he has other policy changes that affect more Americans in place. It’s pretty simple if you put yourself in the shoes of the President dealing with a Congress that’s full of its own gaggle of opportunists.
godless heathen
May 9th, 2009
10:53 am
Fine with me if the mos serve in the military. Give them non-combat roles like we do the girls. For the same reasons.
And if some of them butchy women want to pack a gun and shoot some terrorist scumbags, I’m fine with that too.
ty webb
May 9th, 2009
10:55 am
Political calculation? Does that not make Obama himself an “oppurtunist”? He won! The dems won! Bring on the Change and all that stuff! Quit making excuses. Put down the pom poms.
ty webb
May 9th, 2009
10:57 am
meant to say “opportunist”. sorry for the bad spelling.
ByteMe
May 9th, 2009
10:58 am
ty: wake up to reality. He’s not sitting around reading about “My Pet Goat”. He’s actually doing something, whether you like what he’s doing or not. He’s not asleep. You ever rebuilt a car from pieces in an hour? Takes a little more time than that.
Put down the unreality stick you’re waving around. You might poke your eye out.
eagle scout
May 9th, 2009
11:02 am
Sissy the whiner you write “Gays are some of the most violent, angry radical extremists you can find.”
What happened did one of those angry, violent gays pound the sh*t out of you one night?
Too bad!
TnGelding
May 9th, 2009
11:16 am
I Report
/ You Whine 
May 9th, 2009
9:23 am
We certainly don’t have a monopoly on misrepresenting the facts.
Both individuals sound like just the kind of people we need in the military, or anywhere else for that matter. Let’s see if Obama is just another pretender or if he actually fights for change.
It’s the heterosexuals that are the real problem:
http://www.pentagon.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=53525
georgian by birth floridian because I'm lucky
May 9th, 2009
11:28 am
do not mean to sound like the sour puss, but…
Why does anyone think Obama is going to be serious about this. He has openly said he opposses gay marriage.
So I am just curious what it is that makes us think that he would allow a person to serve in the military especially since he does not even allow them to marry who they love.
I hope this is changed though. The only issue needed to be addressed would be housing. I know that nothing would happen, but sexual misconduct and uncomfort with someone possibly looking at one in a sexual manor, are reasons why male and female soldiers are seperate. So that is the only real issue to think about or plan for. Other than that one issue what could possibly be the reason that this has not already been done.
Could it be our politicians being affraid again?
Jay I thought you told us only republicans get scarred and act stupid.
georgian by birth floridian because I'm lucky
May 9th, 2009
11:32 am
ty webb sorry did not see your post at 10:25, or well wouldn’t have taken the time to write mine.
Sorry for borrowing your thunder, good point notice not many have had a logical response for your comment.
TnGelding
May 9th, 2009
11:35 am
Ray
May 9th, 2009
9:30 am
Money does grow on trees. We need them to print our newly found wealth and the AJC. Although it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to cease and desist in both cases.
Looks like most of the banks are going to be able to repay their TARP investments, WITH INTEREST!
http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUKBNG43509020090420
georgian by birth floridian because I'm lucky
May 9th, 2009
11:40 am
byteme,
As much stuff that gets added onto bills he could have got it done.
The rep. can do nothing to stop it.
The only reason he and the other dems. have not done as they said, kinda like the freedom of choice act, is because they are worried about votes. Sorry but what a sheep you must be to think they actually have principles about them. They are in for a power grab, all politicians.
I understand that you are a dem. and you LOVE Obama but being blind is not only dangerous to yourself but also all of us. They need people like you, and Andy to blindly cheer regardless of what the actual facts are.
Does Obama say he is in favor of changing don’t ask, don’t tell? YES
Did he also say his first act would be sign the freedom of choice act? YES
Is there anything the REP. can do to stop anything the Dem. want to pass? NO
Has he produced any type of legislation about either of these and have the dems done anything about them? NO
Does their success depend upon people always defending them blindly and not looking at what they say as oppossed to what they do? YES
I know it is all these press conferences that Nancey Pelosi has been having to attend that has kept this from getting done.
Who was it again that wanted to look deeply into the torture documents agaian?
TnGelding
May 9th, 2009
11:47 am
ty webb
May 9th, 2009
10:25 am
Two entirely different issues.
History of marriage:
http://marriage.about.com/cs/generalhistory/a/marriagehistory.htm
Why ruin a good relationship by getting married? Some day it might come about, but just think how absurd it would have sounded just a few years ago. In reality all it takes is a commitment between two individuals, society be damned. Take the civil union and be happy if you must have some kind of legal acceptance.
clyde
May 9th, 2009
11:56 am
When I was in the Army I never really thought about the sexuality of the people there with me. I really didn’t care.They weren’t girls so I wasn’t interested.
Now it seems that gays have some compulsion to tell me they’re gay and I still don’t care.Am I supposed to?Is this being gay some earth shaking thing that is so much better than being heterosexual?Is that what I’m supposed to believe?
I don’t care what you do or who you do it with as long as it isn’t me.
AmVet
May 9th, 2009
11:57 am
Notwithstanding the over-simplified and sophomoric exaggerations regarding the Uppity One’s commie/pinko/Marxist/socialist agenda, his first 100 days have been the polar opposite of his bungling predecessor.
– Jan 22 Phil Gramm of Texas introduces the George Bush tax cut for the rich just 2 days into office.
– Jan 30 Bush gets godly by offering up his faith based initiative.
– Feb 9 Bush starts his talk of a war effort by by offering top to bottom funding of the military.
– Tax point man for Bush tells Congress it is time for a tax cut for the nations richest people.
– Feb 16 Bush visits with President Fox of Mexico and offers a guest worker and amnesty program.
– March 13 Bush reneges on a promise to reduce carbon dioxide pollution in the US.
– March 19 Bush pushes for drilling rights for energy corporations saying we need to allow unchallenged exploration in the US.
– March 20 Bush repeals law covering work place stress injuries.
– March 29 Bush once again refuses to regulate carbon dioxide pollution.
– April 9 Bush sends 2002 Budget proposal to Congress with cuts to transportation, agriculture and environmental protection.
And though a tad later, in May 2001, Bush proposed cutting 57 SEC staffers, with 13 coming from the ranks of mutual fund examiners. With the SEC then inspecting funds only once every five years, these staff cuts were reason to celebrate if you’re a fund manager who makes money by playing fast and loose with your shareholders’ money. And this after GWB promised to “clean up Wall Street” in his campaign
I’ll allow the Uppity One loathers to create their own 100 day list and if they have problems, I’ll try to help with that as well…
DB, Gwinnettian
May 9th, 2009
12:04 pm
Clyde asks: “I still don’t care. Am I supposed to?”
Well, there is a clinging-for-life political contingent that expects you to, yes.
Pretty pathetic, huh?
DB, Gwinnettian
May 9th, 2009
12:04 pm
Oh, and let the record show that it took all of 39 minutes for our resident knuckle-dragging buffoon to post the first slur. Way to go, Andy!
@@
May 9th, 2009
12:11 pm
jay, if you haven’t yet learned, it’s best you don’t put too much faith in what Obama says he’ll do. He’s making a lot of promises that congress has no intention of letting him keep. I’m beginning to suspect that he knows that. Everybody gets to save face.
I’ll side with the majority of our military on the repeal of DADT. They’re opposed.
Military Times poll found that 58% of active-duty respondents were opposed to repealing the law. The 2008 survey further found that if Congress repeals the 1993 law, 10% of respondents said they would not re-enlist, and an additional 14% said they would consider ending their careers. This is a poll, not a crystal ball, but indicators such as this should give pause to the new president and commander-in-chief, Barack Obama. Personnel losses anywhere near these numbers would devastate the volunteer force.
I think you and the libs have been skewered by the gay rights activists on this one not unlike the polls they push.
It’s obvious that Tsao’s need to proclaim sexual preference overrode her desire to serve in the military. Her choice….her consequences.
I Report :-) / You Whine :-(
May 9th, 2009
12:21 pm
eagle scout May 9th, 2009 11:02 am What happened did one of those angry, violent gays pound the sh*t out of you one night?
Anytime you’d like to try, Nancy, just let me know.
Vinny
May 9th, 2009
12:29 pm
@@,
Since when does President Teleprompter care about what the majority want? The majority of Americans were against overseas funding of abortions, yet one of the first things the president did when he entered office was to send our tax dollars overseas so that more babies could be killed.
If Obama thinks that changing a policy will garner more votes for him, then to heck with what the people in the military think. This is all about power for this President and this administration. They will do anything to retain it, no matter how much it destroys America
ByteMe
May 9th, 2009
12:30 pm
@@ – I did a good job debunking that survey a few weeks ago. It was a self-selecting “survey” and not a random poll or even a real poll. Repeat — unlike your commentator’s statement — it was NOT a poll. Go to the Mil Times web site and get the details on how they did the survey.
If you dig deeper into the issue, you’ll find two things: (1) the military wasn’t real happy to integrate with black people either; (2) the people responsible for DADT now claim it was a stupid mistake accepted by a weak noobee Clinton and they want it repealed in favor of complete acceptance.
ByteMe
May 9th, 2009
12:35 pm
Whiner says: Gays are some of the most violent, angry radical extremists
and then follows up a comment with:
Anytime you’d like to try, Nancy, just let me know.
Whiner, you either have a finely tuned sense of irony or none at all.
AmVet
May 9th, 2009
12:35 pm
To paraphrase that hated Clarence Darrow, “We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the the United States military.”
N.J,
May 9th, 2009
12:36 pm
For every one act of gay violence, you can find ten thousand acts of anti-gay violence. Right wingers have engaged in more acts of violence than all other groups put together and that includes Islamic fundamentalists.
@@
May 9th, 2009
12:47 pm
Vinny:
I don’t think Obama does care. His concern is for self-image and nothing more. He convinces me more each day. His efforts are to please everyone. I like to describe him as mooshy. Like the Queen of England, he serves only as a figurehead with no head for figurin’.
ByteMe:
And here’s what’s being said about the “polls” gay activists push (pun intended). The “polls” that you so readily accept.
@@
May 9th, 2009
12:50 pm
Forgot to link.
Here’s what’s being said…
DB, Gwinnettian
May 9th, 2009
12:57 pm
“if the policy was repealed, nearly 10 percent of respondents said they would not re-enlist or extend their service”
Figuring in a braggadocio-factor and assume maybe five percent of the military’s most unreconstructed Jesus freaks would be purged, I’d say that’d be a great thing.
Door, ass, you know the rest.