I grew up in a military family and have a deep respect for the dedication and service of the men and women in our military.
As a member of the Armed Services Committee, I believe it is unconscionable that we have a law that kicks highly skilled, capable and dedicated Americans out of the military at a time when we are fighting two wars and sending servicemembers on multiple deployments. It is wrong to let a social agenda prevent some of the best and brightest from honorably serving in the military.
Since the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell first became law, thousands of highly skilled servicemembers have suffered discrimination while thousands more have been discouraged from even considering the military. The law undermines our military readiness and unit cohesion at a time when a strong fighting force is needed now more than ever.
Congressman Meehan, who represented the 5th district of Massachusetts before me, was the first member to introduce legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”
I am honored to have had the opportunity to vote to repeal it.
You can stay connected with the campaign through www.NikiTsongas.com, our Facebook page and Twitter.
DADT strikes me as a particularly ignorant policy. How many gay linguists, etc., have we kicked out of the armed forces as a result of DADT? Was that helpful?
You’re doing a great job if you are. My Marine friends have related to me several stories of outed gays being beaten to a pulp. We’re talking the military here. They’re a tough bunch.
I wish a safe Memorial Day to all involved. Remembering the fallen is not necessarily a happy moment.
Your position is that we should continue not allowing gay and lesbian sopldiers to serve openly because if we do their brothers (and sisters I suppose) in arms will beat them up?
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p>I suppose allowing black people to vote was just inviting ignorant people to spray them with fire hoses as well?
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p>Seriously dude, this is ignorant!
Is that in a boot camp barracks of about 70 people, they might not all be as understanding as our moonbats in Massachusetts are. If a Red Sox fan ventures down to Yankee they will be invitedto at least a few fights.
so to mitigate/prevent the intolerance of others, we have to be intolerant of people’s sexuality? Which is immaterial to the job they are performing on behalf of our country? Sorry, I’m not following you. How is one’s sexuality any different than any other trait – race, creed, etc? This isn’t a choice…it’s hard-wired, like hair or eye color.
… with conservative thought on the military. Being pro-military is a tribal association and they view the military itself not as a professional organization but a tribal one. Thus the assumption of tribal stupidity instead of professionalism would be the rule of the day within the organization. Of course the real danger is that if we expect tribalism from our military instead of professionalism, it may come to pass that that is exactly what we’ll get from our military.
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p>Sad.
… Rove (emphasis mine):
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p>So much for professionalism.
To the extent this happens now, it is because the victim has a strong incentive not to report it. Once members of the armed services no longer have to hide their sexual identity, this kind of behavior will be much more likely to be reported and punished severely. You bust a bunch of guys down to private and give them time in the brig, that kind of thing will stop real fast.
Marines aren’t just physically tough; they are mentally tough. If you aren’t emotionally tough enough to deal with the fact that some of your fellow Marines have a different sexual preference then you aren’t tough enough to be a Marine. I have absolutely no doubt that the vast majority of them are indeed tough enough.
BillXI hates gays. Therefore everyone else shares his hatreds and desires.
Dearest Billxi,
How very sweet of you to be so very concerned about Rep. Tsongas’ re-election chances.
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p>You just the kindest person here.
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p>Hugs and kisses,
KBusch
…that when you talk about “repealing” DADT you are also drafting affirmative language to specifically allow people to serve openly. As I understand it to “repeal” a law is to return to the status quo ante, which before DADT was that LGBT people could not serve – period. In that respect DADT was theoretically an improvement.
Why I voted to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
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p>Because I’m not a bigot.
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p>There’s no reason to qualify your reason beyond that — and, IMO, doing so only undermines the righteousness of your vote.
It is utterly shameful how many supposedly ‘pro-military’ Republicans voted with their bigoted base instead of for a policy an overwhelming majority of Americans favor, an overwhelming majority of servicemen and women favor, and the Pentagon is set to recommend officially in December. Next time Mark Kirk, Scott Brown, Mike Castle, Orrin Hatch, Lindsey Graham, John McCain and a whole host of hypocritical Republicans tell you they favor the military and are pragmatic moderates tell them to shove it. They clearly are too afraid to fight for what is right.