DADT repeal
Dec. 18th, 2010 03:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmAs I am writing this DADT is about to be repealed, and that's fantastic. It's also not enough.
First, this didn't have to go on this long; Obama could have asserted himself in a much more efficient manner. And Obama still has to assert himself. This ONLY takes DADT off the books. Obama needs to issue a direct non-discrimination order to the military.
Second, this process has included a great deal of distaste for our judiciary. As a child, when I learned about the various branches of government, I learned that the courts were always, always, our last, best hope of a just a-political society. Of course, judges are not appointed and elected without politics, and judges are also imperfect, and god knows the Supreme Court makes me angry/nervous often enough. But I believe in the inherent good of the ideal of the judiciary. And our national politics are, at present, demonizing the judiciary from both the left and the right. I find this highly, HIGHLY problematic, and we need step the fuck back from this as a nation.
Third, repeal DOMA. Make sure the spouses and legal partners of LGBT people, and particularly of LGBT service people get the respect and benefits they are entitled to.
Fourth, multiple aspects of our marriage-centric society are problematic. Despite this, we still need marriage equality now.
Fifth, homophobia and misogyny run hand in hand. Rape, homophobia and misogyny run hand-in-hand. We need to look at how we treat women and theoretically feminine characteristics, both in and outside of the military, and get over our shit as a nation.
Sixth, pass ENDA. It is still legal to fire people for being queer in the majority of US states.
Meanwhile:
John McCain, what the fuck? Did you only support DADT repeal when you thought it would never happen? Are you just pandering to the increasing conservatism of your state? Or have your convictions changed? You've embarrassed yourself. Shamed yourself. Shamed our nation on this. Really.
Congress members who voted for this repeal, especially if you once held a different point of view or found this hard to vote for and voted for it anyway? Thank you. Thank you for your courage and self-examination.
People who think this doesn't matter -- this is the first time my national government is ACTIVELY saying I am human, equal, and worthy. You don't know what that's like until you haven't got it.
First, this didn't have to go on this long; Obama could have asserted himself in a much more efficient manner. And Obama still has to assert himself. This ONLY takes DADT off the books. Obama needs to issue a direct non-discrimination order to the military.
Second, this process has included a great deal of distaste for our judiciary. As a child, when I learned about the various branches of government, I learned that the courts were always, always, our last, best hope of a just a-political society. Of course, judges are not appointed and elected without politics, and judges are also imperfect, and god knows the Supreme Court makes me angry/nervous often enough. But I believe in the inherent good of the ideal of the judiciary. And our national politics are, at present, demonizing the judiciary from both the left and the right. I find this highly, HIGHLY problematic, and we need step the fuck back from this as a nation.
Third, repeal DOMA. Make sure the spouses and legal partners of LGBT people, and particularly of LGBT service people get the respect and benefits they are entitled to.
Fourth, multiple aspects of our marriage-centric society are problematic. Despite this, we still need marriage equality now.
Fifth, homophobia and misogyny run hand in hand. Rape, homophobia and misogyny run hand-in-hand. We need to look at how we treat women and theoretically feminine characteristics, both in and outside of the military, and get over our shit as a nation.
Sixth, pass ENDA. It is still legal to fire people for being queer in the majority of US states.
Meanwhile:
John McCain, what the fuck? Did you only support DADT repeal when you thought it would never happen? Are you just pandering to the increasing conservatism of your state? Or have your convictions changed? You've embarrassed yourself. Shamed yourself. Shamed our nation on this. Really.
Congress members who voted for this repeal, especially if you once held a different point of view or found this hard to vote for and voted for it anyway? Thank you. Thank you for your courage and self-examination.
People who think this doesn't matter -- this is the first time my national government is ACTIVELY saying I am human, equal, and worthy. You don't know what that's like until you haven't got it.
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no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 08:36 pm (UTC)The whole notion of activist-judges is very disturbing in many ways. The fact that equal rights need to be asserted by individuals shouldn't be the way we gain equality. This is an issue in my locale as well.
homophobia and misogyny run hand in hand. Rape, homophobia and misogyny run hand-in-hand. We need to look at how we treat women and theoretically feminine characteristics, both in and outside of the military, and get over our shit as a nation.
This is a humanity thing. While gender presents itself differently in different places. Women and femininity are pretty much abject wherever you go and where there is abjection of that, there will be misogyny and homophobia and sexual violence.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 08:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 09:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 09:38 pm (UTC)I'd especially like to underline my agreement with your point about the judiciary. There seems to be an amazing, and growing, lack of knowledge and/or understanding about how the whole separation of powers/checks and balances thing is supposed to work.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 09:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 09:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 09:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 09:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 09:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 10:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 10:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 10:50 pm (UTC)And just as my disability was originally left out of the scope of the ADA (this has been changed somewhat, but is still problematic), trans people are for the most part not helped by the DADT repeal.
Thank you for pointing out that this is a first step (and huge, so huge, even for someone like myself for whom military service was never really an option) and by no means the end of what our country needs to be doing around equal treatment and inclusion.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-18 11:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 12:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 12:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 12:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 12:53 am (UTC)I've cried twice today.
Date: 2010-12-19 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 02:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 05:32 am (UTC)Any victory means a lot, and in this case, having a victory on this (even a tenuous one that can be taken away very easily) is amazing and should be celebrated. I am so very happy that DaDT is going away and that LGB soldiers can now serve openly. I'm pretty sure that once we get over this and settle in, the controversy will simply diminish because everyone will see that it isn't a big deal. And if marriage equality came to pass, everyone would settle in and see that it wasn't a big deal. Same thing with ENDA. Same thing with everything.
I got out with DaDT. I am glad that I don't have to go back in (both because they aren't recalling people who were kicked out under the policy, and because I am trans). It doesn't feel like much to me because I am not going back in. But I wonder how my old coworkers are going to deal. I wonder what is going to happen in all the bootcamps, and when people decide to come out after years of silence. It's going to be interesting, certainly, and I hope that it creates a stronger case for ENDA. (because now the military is not allowed to discriminate based on orientation, it makes businesses who want to do that look a little smaller.)
no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 08:04 am (UTC)Most teachers shut kids down when they ask, "Why do we have to learn this?" I used to get great results by giving them real answers.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 08:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 01:21 pm (UTC)When I saw all the people dismissing the judiciary I was severely worried - because that is the route to justice sand equality. I was especially horrified to see the president dismissing the judicial route and fighting the judicial repeal - DADT was dead and had to be brought back to life to risk a less secure method through the legislature.
Fighting for rights in the legislature is not only uncertain and but it's also outrageous. It's outrageous because it says rights have to be GRANTED not that they are being demanded and that an injustice has been done. It is the straight majority magnaminously deciding to generously bestow personhood on GBLT people. The courts is saying this shit is wrong and should not stand, that these rights exist and are being violated, that these people have value and are being devalued
And that sparky makes pompous speeches because he likes 'em.
The fact that ENDA and DOMA are dead for the foreseeable future is beyond depressing. And the fact that a great deal of progressives are now going to say "you got DADT, what more do you want?" already has me hissing
I also boggle at the idea of producing this repeal without a non-discrimination clause. How is this to work - soldiers can come out... but their superiors and colleagues can still discriminate against them?
McCain is a homophobic bigot. And like many bigots, he's savy enough to hide his bigotry. So it's easy to be "pro-gay" on a position until you think it may actually happen. Seen it before, seen it often and it doesn't look any prettier the dozenth time. Or the hundreth. Or the thousandth.
And yet another big I agree on the "it doesn't matter" statement. I never joined the military and never planned to, but when my government banned me from it it was a statement - the government was saying i was a lesser person, of lesser worth, of lesser value of lesser citizenship. It doesn't matter that it was an act of citizenship I was never going to partake in - the highest authority in the country was declaring me inherently unfit simply for being gay. How can that NOT be destructive?
no subject
Date: 2010-12-19 10:47 pm (UTC)And yeah, it seems like politics is sort of a ring of dumb white seemingly-straight males with less brains than they want people to think they have, daring each other to go first at something, like voicing an opinion, and then pretty much everyone but Bernie and Obama go that way. I love Bernie, and I still love Obama, even though I don't love everything he's ever done or omitted to do--but the man is caught by the controversially-multi-racial, Harvard-educated balls. He too was the first "of his type" to be seen by voters as human, equal, and worthy. That's been big too, and freaks the hell out of the dumb white numbnuts--
no subject
Date: 2010-12-23 02:44 am (UTC)Mind you, I still think equality is a good thing. But it did make me realize just how very much short it was of the mark of what we need to achieve for true equality. Not that I didn't realize that before, but it made me think of the issue in a different way.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-23 05:20 am (UTC)no subject
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