Please give an another example of 13,000 (and rising) expelled military personnel, other than Gays and Lesbians, who have been systematically persecuted and then drummed out of the military since 1992 — many of whom were career officers; mission crucial soldiers, and even war heroes. What other minority group is singled out for the “crime of being who they are” and then has to endure the most vile treatment imaginable heaped upon them like those in the GLBT community continue to endure in the US Armed Forces.

So, what kind of help can we expect from the White House. Read below.

According to a June 2009 report in the Boston Globe ( http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/06/house_dems_urge.html )

WASHINGTON _ In the most vocal plea yet for the White House to take the lead in pushing for gays and lesbians to be allowed to serve openly in the military, 77 Democratic lawmakers today urged President Obama to use his executive powers to order a halt to military discharges under the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law and work aggressively with Congress to pass new legislation to overturn what they describe as a discriminatory policy that harms national security.

“We urge you to exercise the maximum discretion legally possible in administering Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell until Congress repeals the law,” states the letter, organized by Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Democrat of Florida. “To this end, we ask that you direct the Armed Services not to initiate any investigation of service personnel to determine their sexual orientation, and that you instruct them to disregard third party accusations that do not allege violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”

A recent study by the Palm Center, a public policy think tank at the University of California, Santa Barbara, argued that Obama has the authority as commander-in-chief to suspend the gay discharge process through an executive order.

Obama aides have said the president still plans on acting on his campaign pledge to work for the law’s repeal but have outlined a very deliberative process of study and consultation with the top military brass that could take months, if not years.

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Rainfish comments:

Got that… (the White House has) outlined a very deliberative process of study and consultation with the top military brass that could take months, if not years.

…Hmmmmmm….years…decades…never. Yep, “Change You Can Believe In” alright.

Too bad President Johnson didn’t try that trick in delaying the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, perhaps the South would still be in the Democrat’s corner.

But he knew that would be wrong — just as most of us do. Obviously, nearly a half a century later, the GLBT community after having endured hundreds of years of oppression, discrimination and unimaginable acts of violence perpetrated against our own kind in this fascist country does not rise to the same level of importance.

The government of the United States is beneath competent for allowing these human rights abuses to continue. Obama is a certifiable cretin and a hypocrite if ever he speaks out before the UN General Assembly citing human rights violations in other countries while turning a blind eye to discrimination, oppression and the dehumanization of the very same GLBT community which put him and the Democratic Party into power in the US.

By the way, the White House asked Congressman Hastings to withdraw his bill relating to DADT the congressman told the press. So, let the Congress take the initiative Obama says — then we’ll secretly ask them to kill it. What kind of conscienceless bastard does that? Oh…could it be probably the same kind of miscreant who asked mega-homophobe Rick Warren to open his presidential inauguration ceremonies after he had already shaken down the no longer useful fools and dumb lemmings in the GLBT community for their votes? …Such a nice guy!

We need a strong truly liberal third party option in Washington to break the strangle-hold the corporate political whores and theocrats have on our rights in the un-United States of America. Until then, nothing will change for our community. Nothing at all.

If you vote for any politician out of panic and blind fear of the alternative, they basically have your ass over a barrel and they owe you nothing in return because they got you too scared to reason independently and to think for yourself. Old President Lyndon Johnson knew how to get things done in D.C. . He knew how to twist arms when he need to in order to get legislation done. As crude as it sounds, his favorite line (in reference to any congressman who may have stepped out of line in his our party) was: “Don’t worry about him, I’ve got his dick in my pocket.” In other words, he owned them.

That is what the Democratic Party leadership has reduced us to in the GLBT community — political eunuchs — but only because we have let them do so.

~ Rainfish

He was:

• Forced to take part in film recordings whereby he would have to simulate gay sex with other officers.

• Was repeatedly asked by his commanding officer if he was a “faggot” because he refused to have sex with a prostitute.

• Was told by that same commanding officer to act “more queer, have a higher pitched voice, make the sounds and gestures more realistic” under threat of being outed and suspended if he did not comply.

• He was tied to a chair and thrown into a dog cage full of excrement.

And the abuse didn’t stop there.

Here is Joseph speaking about what happened to him in a Youth Radio interview: ( http://headlines.youthradio.org/news/jcr-slate-one-page-one )

The harassment was not just limited to Rocha. Two female military personel on the base, suspected of being lesbians, were also forced to simulate oral sex with one another on video tape. One of the women later committed suicide.

…So, KARI, while I understand the plight of Orthodox Jews not having Rabbis available to them and Kosher meals served at a VA hospital (and that should be corrected, mind you) the comparison is not quite the same as the wholesale and dehumanizing way Gay and Lesbian military personnel are treated. None of your examples show where they were physically attacked for being Jewish or Arab or an Atheist and then had no way of filing a complaint without further humiliation and an absolute assurance of expulsion — with no legal redress.

Please give an example of 13,000 (and rising) military personnel, other than Gays and Lesbians, who have been so systematically persecuted and then drummed out of the military since 1994 (many of whom were career officers and mission crucial soldiers — not to mention war heroes) for the “crime” of belonging to “other” minority groups in contrast to the vile treatment heaped up patriotic military members of the GLBT community in the Armed Forces.

I agree with your opinion regarding gays in the military, but the above is not true.

There’s an ongoing lawsuit from an orthodox Jew against the Veteran’s Administration for repeatedly discriminatory treatment in VA hospitals. On a few instances where he was given the option of requesting a presence of a priest, he asked for his rabbi; the VA employees refused and sent a priest, who promptly left when asked to by the patient.

They also refused to provide him with kosher food while he was there, which caused him to starve each time he was hospitalized.

Atheist soldiers and veterans also have a lot of complaints about the military; they’re generally not even considered for promotions, regardless of the quality and consistency of their service. They are generally cited as having a lack of ‘leadership skills’ for refusing to participate in non-denominational prayers offered at military functions, whether formal or mundane.

I don’t know the specifics of their complaints, but I don’t doubt Muslim soldiers have issues with the military as well.

The military seems to still consider Christianity its official religion and seems to possess an inherent intent to discriminate against non-Christians.

Nathaniel Frank writes:

“”Don’t ask, don’t tell” singles out gay people as an “unacceptable risk” to the military. It is especially insidious because it makes gay people eligible to serve while simultaneously calling them a threat. It says to heterosexuals, “Gays are serving with you but they are a danger to your mission.” It’s no wonder many are used as a punching bag.

What is the answer? Rep. Patrick Murphy, an Iraq War veteran and former professor at West Point, is spearheading the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in Congress. This is a brave mission for a young, Catholic, heterosexual representing a moderate district in Pennsylvania. But the effort will not succeed overnight. President Obama, however, has the power, through a 1983 “stop-loss” statute passed by Congress, to halt all discharges immediately by executive order, giving Congress time to debate the issue. As his political capital flies out the door in an all-out effort to reform health care, the likelihood that Congress will end “don’t ask, don’t tell” before the 2010 mid-term elections is quickly plummeting.

This is not an academic debate, and the lives of people like Joseph Rocha should not be held hostage to politics. The cleanest, quickest way to lift the ban and protect all our service members and their national security mission, is for the commander-in-chief to lead the way.”

(Full Article Available and Attribution to http://www.palmcenter.org/node/1429 )