Obama to DADT: Please Don't Go!

​The Week in Gay

The week started with a federal judge in California pulling the plug on "Don't Ask Don't Tell" -- the military policy that bans open service by gay. It ended with the Obama administration asking for a stay on the decision.

Let me repeat that summary: President Barack Obama -- who said in his State of the Union address in January 2010: "This year I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal [Don't Ask Don't Tell]. It is the right thing to do." -- was presented with an opportunity to end DADT. And he is turning his back on it.
Check that link out. Congress stood on its feet applauding and cheering. They practically did the wave. Can you tell who wasn't happy about that statement?

It's pretty obvious. Not one of the military monkeys shown in that clip took a breath during that moment. They were terrorized of the thought of gays then and they still are now. The mightiest and boldest and biggest military in the world is afraid of homosexuals.

That's the only conclusion that explains why, in the administrations words, "...the government will be irreparably harmed unless the current policy is allowed to remain in place...". If the military cannot continue to discharge gay personnel everything will be ruined. We must be able to continue to fire able-bodied soldiers because they are gay. Of course, the military is being coddled by a weak and enabling Commander in Chief.

At a town hall meeting on Thursday, Obama said "DADT will end on my watch" and he regurgitated his belief that he has enough votes in the Senate to pass the repeal even though one month ago the Senate failed to end a filibuster that would have repealed the policy. Where are those votes Mr. Obama?

The injunction issued this week would be the perfect opportunity for the President to have the policy end "on his watch" and "this year" and he wouldn't even have to bear the burden of being the executive or the political party responsible for the gay victory. A (retarded) group of gay Republicans -- Log Cabin Republicans -- filed this lawsuit. It is their fault that DADT was found to be unconstitutional. President Obama would simply be doing his job to uphold the constitution by leaving the injunction in place and he could blame Republicans.

But that's not what is going to happen. Instead of doing anything strategic or bold or making any honest statement that the likelihood of the policy being repealed after the mid-term election is nil, the administration says "...as long as reasonable arguments can be made in support of [the constitutionality of DADT] ..." the Department of Justice will defend the policy.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is afraid there will be a cornhole festival and the government needs more time to figure out how to continue discriminating against gay people because they love doing it and they aren't going to stop.

Furthermore this week, Obama's DOJ also filed an intent to appeal another policy that was determined to be unconstitutional in federal court, the Defense of Marriage Act. No arguments were presented yet in the filing but we really can't wait to hear what argument Obama's people offer.

The alternative -- especially with the DOMA case -- is that the decision stands and only the gay couples living in Massachusetts would receive federal recognition until more states filed cases in federal court. That process of state-by-state court challenges would take forever. Obama's appeal is distasteful, but in a way he helps speed up the process by taking DOMA up to the district court.

Either way, he should get shit from the gays -- appeal or not -- and that's too bad for him. As untenable a situation as it seems to be for him, it's worse for us because we have to wait and push and hope and argue and debate constantly. And we have to be sensitive when people in power say stupid things.   

The other day, an adviser to the Obama administration, Valerie Jarrett, referred to the "lifestyle choice" made by a 13-year-old gay California teen who committed suicide recently. Of course, she didn't really mean it like a choice was made by a young teen to be gay -- no, no, no --.she explained on Thursday that she misspoke. She meant something else entirely and just didn't feel like thinking any harder about it and gawd you gays are hard to please for Christ's sake...

Picky picky picky.

Patrick Connors is an uppity fag and until we all get a bit more uppity we will continue to be manipulated by two-faced, conniving, self-serving politicians.

Follow him on Twitter at @UppityFag and @TheSnitchSF