Sexual Orientation and Military Service

[denuseri]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Party_movement isnt wiki wonderful?

[StrictMasterD]

Our Military (In The United States) is ALL Voluntary, if someone who is Gay, wants to Serve His/Her country and put their life on the line so we can continue to Enjoy and Treasure the Freedoms we have, I can support that.

[denuseri]

HI!..Figured I would bump this one since I saw some intrest in this topic shown recently in the forums.

[denuseri]

A group of U.S. service members marched in a San Diego gay pride parade on Saturday, in a demonstration organizers touted as an unprecedented step for gay and lesbian military personnel under the Pentagon's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

The military contingent in the parade numbered about 250 people, and the former Navy operations specialist who brought the group together said many are currently in the military, while the rest are veterans. They dressed in civilian clothes.
Marine Corporal Will Rodriguez-Kennedy is on active duty and said he looks forward to next year's parade, when he believes it will be possible to march in "dress blues."
"One of my friends here has been back from Afghanistan for three days, and when he heard about the parade he said he served in uniform and he should be able to march in uniform," said Rodriguez-Kennedy, 24.
It was unclear exactly how many members of the San Diego gay pride parade's military contingent were on active duty. Several participants who spoke to Reuters had recently left the armed services.
Under the military's existing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, service members are barred from saying they are gay or lesbian, and that has until now discouraged some members of the military from participating in gay pride parades.
Organizers said the San Diego contingent, which included straight supporters also in the armed services, represented the largest group of members of the military to ever march in the city's gay pride parade, or any similar U.S. event.
Gay service members have been known to march in other pride parades, but usually in a low-key manner without calling attention to themselves.
COURT DECISION
The march came a day after a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily reinstated the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays, but blocked the Pentagon from penalizing or discharging anyone for being openly gay. The decision marked a reversal from an earlier order to immediately end the policy.
President Barack Obama signed legislation in December to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," but the bill gave the Pentagon an unlimited time frame to implement the change, leading up to a final "certification" of the repeal.
That certification is expected within weeks.
In a parade that featured drag queens costumed as nuns and men dressed as pirates with G-strings, the military contingent of mostly men in their 20s and 30s marched in markedly more conservative clothing.
They wore green or grey t-shirts emblazoned with their military branch, and each carried in hand a small U.S. flag.
"This is my first time here, out as who I am: a gay man in the Army Reserves," Dale Smith, 50, told Reuters. "It's a great day for me and for all the gay people who've chosen to serve their country."
A Pentagon spokeswoman said U.S. Department of Defense regulations do not prohibit marching in parades while wearing civilian clothes, and that participation "does not constitute a declaration of sexual orientation."
The military contingent in the San Diego parade was organized by Sean Sala, an openly gay 26 year-old man, who left the Navy in June after six years.
"When we were walking, every step of the way it was standing ovations from the crowd," Sala said. "My mom was with me and it made her cry."
San Diego, California's second-largest city, has a large military presence. The nearby Camp Pendleton is the largest Marine Corps base west of the Mississippi River.

[denuseri]

The 9th Circuit Court in California struck down as unconstitutional the state's voter-passed ban on gay marriage Tuesday, ruling 2-1 that it violates the rights of gay Californians.


"Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples," Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote in the decision. The court concludes that the law violates the 14th Amendment rights of gay couples to equal protection under the law. Access to gay marriage will remain on hold pending appeals to the decision.


The Circuit Court backed up District Judge Vaughn Walker, who ruled in August of 2010 that the state of California has no "rational basis" to single out gay men and women as ineligible for marriage. The group fighting for Prop. 8, which passed in 2008 after thousands of gay couples had already married, appealed Walker's decision arguing that it should be vacated because Walker is gay and has a same-sex partner. The 9th Circuit Court judges denied this motion.
Walker's sweeping 2010 decision was called a "grand slam" by gay rights advocates, who hoped it would convince the Supreme Court to rule states cannot outlaw gay marriage. But Reinhardt was explicit in his decision that his ruling is "narrow" and only relates to California, not to the entire nation. In California, gay people had the right to marry for five months before it was taken away by voters. This amounts to a violation of equal protection because a right was specifically taken away from a minority group, Reinhardt writes. But this argument would not apply to gay people in most other states, where gay marriage was never legalized in the first place. "It's a strong decision but it is not the ringing endorsement of broader marriage equality that some might have hoped for," Hunter College professor and gay rights advocate Kenneth Sherrill said.
But University of California Irvine law professor Erwin Chemerinsky tells Yahoo News that the underlying reasoning in the decision is broad--there's no legitimate state interest in denying same-sex marriage rights. Chemerinsky noted that the decision appeals to swing vote Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, by citing his decision in a 1996 case striking down a Colorado law that prevented communities from treating gay people as a protected class.
Ted Olson, the U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush who represents the plaintiffs, said at a press conference that the decision is the first step to ending discrimination. "Today we are more American because of this decision," he said.
The pro-Prop. 8 camp has said it will appeal the decision. The group can now ask for 11 members of the 9th Circuit hear their case, instead of just the panel of three who decided against them on Tuesday. "Today's ruling finally clears the field for an appeal to the United States Supreme Court, where we are confident we will be victorious," the Save Prop 8 campaign said in a statement.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released a statement saying the "fight" over states' rights to ban gay marriage is not over. "Today, unelected judges cast aside the will of the people of California who voted to protect traditional marriage," he said, adding that he would appoint judges who oppose same-sex marriage if he's elected. President Obama also opposes same-sex marriage, but says that his opinion on the issue is "evolving."

[IAN 2411]

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released a statement saying the "fight" over states' rights to ban gay marriage is not over. "Today, unelected judges cast aside the will of the people of California who voted to protect traditional marriage," he said, adding that he would appoint judges who oppose same-sex marriage if he's elected.

denu...I really can't make out what all this shit is about. It seems to me that the American leaders and the sheep that follow them in these public displays of bigotry, must love making themselves look like idiots to the rest of the world. If that is a display of American democracy then thank God you have it and the UK has not.

For a man to say, because I don’t like that judges, judgement, I will go and get my case passed through a judge that is like minded as me. That is obscene? I will kick out all judges that I don’t think have my values? I will put in judges that are all of the same value of morals as me?

That is dictatorship and I ask where will it end?

Be well IAN 2411

[Thorne]

For a man to say, because I don’t like that judges, judgement, I will go and get my case passed through a judge that is like minded as me. That is obscene? I will kick out all judges that I don’t think have my values? I will put in judges that are all of the same value of morals as me?

This is the American way, though! After all, who better to decide which person would be best qualified to hold a position requiring intelligence and integrity than an elected official who has not demonstrated either of those qualities?

[lucy]

... must love making themselves look like idiots to the rest of the world.

Ian, it's awfully difficult if not outright impossible not to look like an idiot when you are an idiot.

[StrictMasterD]

No

[thir]

Should the Military place restrictions on it's service members for their sexual orientation?

What kind of restrictions do you mean?

[thir]

I started and answer and now I need to delete it, this is the only way I can.

[IAN 2411]

Same-sex marriage plan 'power grab'
Lord Carey said neither the state nor the church have the right to redefine marriage 'in such a fundamental way'

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey is lending his weight to a campaign against plans to legalise same-sex marriages.

In an article for the Daily Mail, Lord Carey claimed the proposal to change the status of marriage "constitutes one of the greatest political power grabs in history".

In September, it was announced that the coalition Government would legislate for same-sex marriages by 2015. A public consultation on how to make civil marriage available to same-sex couples is to be launched next month.

Grassroots organisation Coalition for Marriage is launching a campaign against the moves, in a bid to halt attempts to redefine marriage.

The proposals were announced by Lib Dem Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone last year, but senior Tories made clear they had the strong backing of David Cameron - despite the likely opposition of many Conservative traditionalists.

Lord Carey wrote that he was "baffled" by Mr Cameron's statement at last year's Conservative Party conference, in which the Prime Minister said: "I don't support gay marriage in spite of being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I am a Conservative."

In his article, Lord Carey said: "Like many others, I was baffled by this statement. Not because I begrudge rights and benefits to homosexual couples."

He said he was baffled "because this Government's proposal constitutes one of the greatest political power grabs in history."

He went on: "The state does not 'own' the institution of marriage. Nor does the church. The honourable estate of matrimony precedes both the state and the church, and neither of these institutions have the right to redefine it in such a fundamental way."

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said: "The Coalition for Marriage is intolerant and out of touch. Its support for the ban on gay marriage is homophobic and discrimination. Coalition members are entitled to believe that same-sex marriages are wrong, but they are not entitled to demand that their opposition to such marriages should be imposed on the rest of society and enforced by law."
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I don’t know why this Priest was made a Lord because he is no Lord of mine. He should stick to his church to be seen and not heard... I will be glad when the House of Lords is reformed and he along with the other hangers on will be kicked out on his ass. If he wants to live in the 19th century than do it quietly, I don’t want to hear this old fashioned bigotry. If it was not for the fact he is a has-been priest and now a Lord he could never get away with talking shit.

Be well IAN 2411