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As featured on p. 218 of "Bloggers on the Bus," under the name "a MyDD blogger."

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Overturned?

Sure looks like it.

SEATTLE - The military cannot automatically discharge people because they're gay, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in the case of a decorated flight nurse who sued the Air Force over her dismissal.

The three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not strike down the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. But they reinstated Maj. Margaret Witt's lawsuit, saying the Air Force must prove that her dismissal furthered the military's goals of troop readiness and unit cohesion.


I think the court is being polite. If you cannot automatically discharge an LGBT individual, then there would be no penalty for the telling, so it wouldn't matter who's asking.

In an Obama Administration, this policy will be overturned. And we can end this nonsense of having two tiers of citizens, each with their own set of privileges. That homosexuality lurks in the shadows in the military is offensive, and the "unit cohesion" arguments are weak. John McCain would continue these and other discriminatory policies, even if he's lying about them now.

I wish Obama would come out strongly for gay marriage and brush off that "civil unions" half-measure, but that's just a matter of time. And for those in support of gay rights, the choice is clear.

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