Wow. The Marines not only have a magazine cover that says, “We’re Gay, Get Over It,” but one day after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ends, Marine recruiters are at a Tulsa gay community center recruiting. WTF? What is going on here?
This NYT article explains:
Although Marines pride themselves on being the most testosterone-fueled of the services, they also ferociously promote their view of themselves as the best. With the law now changed, the Marines appear determined to prove that they will be better than the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard in recruiting gay, lesbian and bisexual service members.
A friends says this is just an example of their usual forceful mindset. True, but they are who they are, too, and sometimes we need forceful. I am grateful to have those who study how to do it well so people like me can hold up the other touchy-feely side. I think a healthy society needs both.
I am deeply touched to have their relentlessly gung-ho spirit on my side for the first time in my life. Decades of hearing disdain and disgust from a branch of the US government has been difficult. Thanks to the military leaders who are slowly restoring my respect.
The Daily Show’s celebration of what turned out to be rather a non-event of ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. As usual, the anti-gay spent decades fighting our rights, but when our rights arrived, nothing much changed.
It gets tiring being society’s boogeyman, and knowing intelligent people like John Stewart get it is reassuring. Straight support is our most powerful weapon for moving past the kind of anti-gay nonsense represented by the military’s ban.
The Daily Show on the repeal of DADT:
On the eve of the removal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a tender young soldier calls his dad to tell him he’s gay. The video, now seen by millions, is stunning in its simplicity.
The US military didn’t mind having gay women and men die for their country, they just wanted to believe a lie about who those people were. The long nightmare of our largest government institution sticking its fingers in its ears and going “nah-nah-nah-nah, we’re not listening” is now over, with surprisingly little fanfare considering how hard our opponents fought.
I cannot imagine the effect this change will have as our most conservative citizens and their families openly rub shoulders with homosexuals and find out their world does not end.
A big Huzzah for all the gays in the millinery military.
The cover of next week's Marine Corps Times. Wow.
