In the ongoing tennis match that is Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, the latest is that President Obama has told Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin (D-MI) that he is committed to including repeal in the National Defense Authorization Act. Two Republican senators have expressed support for repeal—Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and John Ensign (R-NV). […]
What’s going on with the ban on openly gay servicemembers? Don’t ask. On Thursday, results from the upcoming Pentagon report on the impact of a repeal leaked to the Washington Post. The good news is that the ban could be repealed “with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts.” Then
Here are a few highlights from the surfeit of political news and analysis this week: David Cicilline (D-RI) became the fourth openly gay member of Congress, joining Barney Frank (D-MA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), and Jared Polis (D-CO), who each also won reelection. Lisa Keen writes about the more than 100 other openly gay candidates who
First: You’re all voting next Tuesday, right? No, no candidate is perfect. Sometimes we need to choose the better of two (or more) evils. I think it’s still important to make that choice, though. President Obama met with five progressive bloggers, who grilled him on marriage equality and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Joe Sudbay, who
Ask? Tell? Oh, I don’t know. Injunctions were flying everywhere, Dan Choi tried to reenlist, and the latest seems to be that the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has stopped the enforcement of the district court order that the military stop enforcing DADT. Sorting out the double negatives: DADT is still on. The November
This week’s political news makes up for in quality what it lacks in quantity—a couple of major issues in play here. (As always, I’ll tackle parenting and youth issues in a separate roundup.) A federal judge issued an injunction to put an “immediate” stop to all Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell discharges and investigations. The Staff
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told the audience at the Victory Fund’s Gay & Lesbian Leadership Awards that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell “will be gone by the end of the year.” Will the Obama administration appeal the two federal court rulings that declared part of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional? Good question; and Lee
Let’s start right in with the breaking news: U.S. Federal District Court Judge Ronald Leighton ruled that the U.S. Air Force should reinstate Major Margaret Witt, a decorated U.S. Air Force flight nurse who had been dismissed under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT). Other DADT news this week was more mixed: The Senate failed to
Not too many stories, but some potentially very significant ones: Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell. Do Call. The end of ENDA (along with tired ENDA-related puns)? Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced the Health Data Collection Improvement Act to allow Health and Human Services to collect voluntary data on sexual orientation and gender identity in federal health
A federal judge ruled that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers, is unconstitutional. The decision is likely to be appealed, which is why we must continue fighting the policy from a legislative angle as well, as I explain in a piece at Change.org. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter appointed
