Subscribe to Breaking NewsLowenstein: Obama administration argued DADT “rational” policy
The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell today, missing it’s opportunity to overturn the discriminatory policy:
“The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a challenge to the Pentagon policy forbidding gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, granting a request by the Obama administration.
“The court said it will not hear an appeal from former Army Capt. James Pietrangelo II, who was dismissed under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
“The federal appeals court in Boston earlier threw out a lawsuit filed by Pietrangelo and 11 other veterans. He was the only member of that group who asked the high court to rule that the Clinton-era policy is unconstitutional.
“In court papers, the administration said the appeals court ruled correctly in this case when it found that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is “rationally related to the government’s legitimate interest in military discipline and cohesion.””
While it’s certainly disappointing that the Supreme Court would choose to let this opportunity to challenge the Constitutionality of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell pass, the Obama administration’s contribution to the case is even more problematic.
The administration has said all along that it will follow and support the law while it remains legal, and yet their argument– that the policy is “rationally relationed to the government’s legitimate interest in military discipline and cohesion”– seems callous to the extreme.
The complete dearth of leadership on this issue is made only more complicated by the reality that a vast (and growing) majority of Americans want to see the policy overturned. A new poll from Gallup shows that 69% of Americans want to see the policy overturned, an increase of six percent over the last five years. While liberal support for overturning the policy has consistently been high, the most dramatic change is among conservative and church-going voters.
Americans are six percentage points more likely than they were four years ago to favor allowing openly gay men and lesbian women to serve in the military, 69% to 63%. While liberals and Democrats remain the most supportive, the biggest increase in support has been among conservatives and weekly churchgoers — up 12 and 11 percentage points, respectively.
The significant– and diverse– support for ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell means that it is time for change. The Obama administration had better wake up and smell the progress on this one, before it becomes even more obvious that they’re playing politics with our national security.
Wow, if this is not the biggest slap in the face, I do not know what is. I know that Obama will for sure not have my vote in 2012. It is time to pull support from this jackass back- stabber
I agree. We need a third party candidate.
Is this President going to keep any promises he made us?
John, no fricken way. This is BS. Time to pull the support.
Keep supporting Democrats. Listen to the donation wranglers at Lambda, HRC & ACLU and vote for whoever they endorse. They have your best interests in mind and want to resolve these legal issues quickly.
You can rely on liberal heterosexual politicians to introduce and champion legislation for a minority even if only visible nationally by 3-5%.
Further, you can rely on the merit of law to render justice among judges, justices and law enforcement in securing and enforcing your rights, despite the fact that 99% of them subscribe to a different lifestyle socially supported by biblical texts and traditional norms.
You must be patient. Patience is a virtue. Being patient and not doing anything to upset either the majority or, especially, those very careful plans of your leaders that know whats best for you and need more time to accomplish their objectives.
If you are patient enough., you will be able to serve openly in the military, be married and have equal protection.
Its a two party system, so you must vote for Democrats, because not voting for them would leave rotten conservatives in charge, and then things wouldnt progress though your legislators, but stand still.
We’ve invested a lot of time in putting on a pleasant, easy-going face for America so people will like us. So its very important that we dont screw that up by pushing to hard and frustrating them. We must let them understand that their peace of mind in having us around is also a big priority for us. we have to keep reaching out, even in ethnic and religious minority groups. If we try really hard and are nice enough, we can undo centuries of bigotry, perhaps even in time for the next election.
Mainstream America takes our protests very seriously, so we should ensure they remain peaceful and civil. American heterosexuals can see that we’re unhappy when we block random traffic to stroll about, and can see by the laughter and smiles on television that we are not dis-spirited by our many losses. By seeing that we are peaceful and fun loving, they may like us enough to really re-think the consequences of keeping us oppressed. By wearing festive colors, waving rainbows dancing in the streets and playing music, we show them that we have infinite patience and compassion for them in the face of repeated defeats, and they will feel so sad for us that they will change their minds to have a peaceful conscience.
This is the path to success. Its what we’ve been doing for decades now, and you can see its working. By supporting the endorsements of our leaders and remaining patient, we’ve managed to be de-criminalized and even achieve marriage in six states in fifty, and we did it it only twenty years of post-Reagan, peaceful activism.
Theres nowhere to go but up, if not for our generation, then at least our children’s, or perhaps in their childrens’ lifetimes.
The point is that everything is going fine, just as our leaders are telling us, and that we must keep supporting them and just be patient and peaceful. Above all, we dont want to do anything that would diminish their influence speaking for us by doing anything that would upset the heterosexual mainstream and social order.
Its imperative that we do not upset social order. Look at the MLK, Watts and LA Riots. Millions in city damages, and can we really say that blacks are better off today than they were then? It proves that showing America drastic consequences for legally sanctioned discrimination accomplishes nothing.
And if we want to assure our youth follow our footsteps and lead on someday with the success we have had, then we must shape the culture in such a way that young males identify homosexuality with femininity. We can actually use out-dated gender roles in our favor by applying them to our males so that they aspire to the demure and passive ideals of character that America once expected of its females to keep them in line. By doing this, we can be assured that no future generation will try and summon the bravado to take on these legal and cultural differences head on and upset heterosexual America, and possibly even make the mainstream so unhappy that we cant even get married in six states or serve quietly in the military.
Everything is fine, even our leaders in the Democratic party, the HRC, Lambda Legal and the ACLU say so.
We must be patient and peaceful with our heterosexual brothers. America is one big, compassionate family, and we’re the youngest visible minority among them. We have to listen to our older brothers in this family. We must never forget that deep down, our big brother loves us.
Hillary 2012!!!
Why do we continue to support Obama? He doesn’t want us to Marry and says it’s ok for the Military to discriminate against us. He’s completely lost my support.
After months of being bashed on here for pointing out inconsistencies in Obama’s support of Gays and Lesbians, I am saddened to see it come to fruition. I have never been less happy to be right.
I have two words : FUCK OBAMA….Ivoted for him…sooooo disapointed….fuck the democratic party….
While I certainly agree that the decision to oppose the ending of DADT was pretty scummy, on the other hand the Supreme Court, with its current make-up of anti-social “injustices,” decided that it did NOT want to deal with it. Which means that other courts of appeals can continue to take it up and, possibly, be more rational with respect to this irrational policy than the Obama administration.
I have never voted Republican and never will. And I have always argued against voting for a 3rd party. But I am ready now to say I was wrong.
I’ll likely vote a 3rd party next election.
They are taking us for granted, and I am tired of it.
So let’s see now, Obama:
1) Does not intend to block DADT by way of executive order.
2) Opposes overturning it in the courts and
3) Shows no intention of pressuring Congress to do so, and neither does Nancy Pelosi.
Okay, fine, the gloves are off. Revenge is best had by attacking Obama’s hypocrisy, not just on the gay rights issue, but on EVERY issue where he breaks promises or takes a right-leaning stance.
So he got liberals to jump on his bandwagon. Fine. But there’s already grumbling on the Left as Obama seems to care more about appeasing the Right than he does about the Left that actually voted for him.
But come 2012 those Right-wing voters he’s pandering to are NOT going to vote for him regardless, and it is increasingly clear that Moderate and Left voters oppose DADT, and can be swayed against a lot of his other stances.
If he wants to make us his enemy, fine. We can use every media outlet we’re involved in to undermine his presidency and get him voted out in 2012. You know that EXACTLY what the Latino community has threatened and why he devotes so much effort to appeasing them. They aren’t playing nice. They’ve made it clear that they have DEMANDS that they want to see met – or else.
The HRC and other DC groups have lost site of this. They’re just so giddy that they get invited to the White House again that they don’t really care if Obama does nothing for the LGBT community. It’s all about networking and feeling important to them.
So it’s time for some political hardball.
Man, I really hope Obama writes us another snappy proclamation.
This man turns my stomach.
Sad to say, but Dick Cheney is more progressive on gay rights than President Obama has been.
Anyone else feel slapped in the face?