My Tribute to my Comrades in Arms

It's my humblest honor to share this page with all Veteran's.

For Peace
For Honor
For Country

Many people wonder why I incesently push the issue of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. At face, you may assume it is because just several months ago I was discharged from the US Navy as a result of the policy. To be fair, that was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back, but repealing this awful policy makes sense on so many differerent levels.

First, lets look at it from the human rights perspective. Americans value equality. It is part of the foundation of our country and although we have sometimes struggled to provide true equality to certain groups, we have eventually made right, our wrongs. Slowly, the LGBT community is having their wrongs righted. Employment non-discrimination laws, hate-crimes legislation, housinging non-discrimination laws.... we have had successes. We also have a lot of work to be done still. Marriage is an issue high on the radar of the LGBT community. I am sympathetic. I want full equality as much as the next person, but unfortunatly, the country as a whole is not quite ready for that. As much as I would like to shake them and say "what is wrong with you" that will not work. We need to be much more tactfull. Poll after poll shows that while marriage continues to divide our country, the issue of gays in the military brings us together. With 2/3 of the country supporting it including majorities in groups we wouldnt expect it in such as frequent church goers, self identified conservatives and older Americans. When you break it down to 18-24 year olds (those who make up the largest chunk of our military) they support full military inclusion by a whopping 90 percent! When Harry Truman integrated blacks into the military in the late 1940's he was called crazy, and told it would ruin our military. Several years later, blacks recieved full marriage equality and the military continued to be as effective as it ever was, if not more. We are a better country as a result of the integration and we stand to be even greater by lifting the ban on LGBT Americans.

Second, to fully understand the impact of DADT we need to look at what it has done to our national security. The 9-11 commision cited untranslated intelligence as one of the reasons the events of that day occured. Prior to 9-11 the US Military had discharged several arabic translators simply for being gay. Had those translators, with the essential skills they had, been kept in, and doing their job, 9-11 may have been prevented. Thats quite the statement. But it's true. Yet we continue to discharge linguists, doctors, submariners, flight medics, intelligence specialists, and the anyone else in our armed forces who is LGBT. The lack of fully qualified people in our military makes us weaker at home. And we cant just look at those who have been kicked out. The policy effetcs so many more. There are thousands of LGBT servicemen and women who decide not to reenlist and contiue to live a lie. The lose of these people in terms of the training we spend on them, and the time and training it takes to replace them is a incalcuable.

The Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, forced upon us by the republican party who objected to President Clinton's forsight and leadership in wanting to fully integrate our military, has failed. We must recognize that failure and repeal the policy. HR 1059, introduced by Congressman Martin Meehan calls for just that. Currently it has 119 bi-partisan cosponsors. It's time for change. Call your member of congress to ask them to support HR 1059 or thank them for supporting it. Do it for the country, do it for equality, do it for the men and women who are still serving and are forced to lie about their families back home for fear of losing their job. MY brothers and sisters who continue to serve despite the policy are the real reason I go on and on about this policy. They need our help. I'm doing my part, will you?

Things have become so desperate for the Marine Corp that they are now
forced to call up members of the inactive reserve to bear the burdens
of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 2,500 Marines will be
involuntarily recalled to active duty under this new order from the
President. While this is going on there are 953 other Marines who
would gladly volunteer to go back to active duty. However, these
Marines are persona non gratis.

Thanks to the disastrous Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy the Marine Corp
alone has discharged 953 LGBT men and women under the policy. A move
that has certainly led to the recruiting crunch the Corp and other
services are feeling. The sad part is the 953 Marines who were
discharged make up only a fraction of the DADT casualties. Many more
choose not to reenlist rather then having to continue to live a lie
under the policy. Moreover, in our increasingly tolerant country, how
many young Americans simply write off the thought of military service
due to the policy which bars either them or their friends from
serving? The extent of the negative impact on recruitment and
retention the DADT policy has caused will quite possibly never be
known. But one thing is for certain. Our nation is put in grave danger
when we turn down qualified men and women based solely on their
status.