While Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a Change.gov video that "Yes," the President would lift the ban on gays in the military, Obama is signaling that it will be months if not years before enough canvassing of military officials and congressional leadership can be done for him to be comfortable in moving forward....
it basically discusses how much research and looking into do we have to have.
there is a discussion after the post in the comments that seems to have a slant of hopelessness. i had to add to the discussion, and below is the comment i left:
i met two guys last week who are in the service and are together. talking with them was fascinating. they were really great guys. despite the fact that they are ingrained with the military command structure as part of their lives (they had the aura of military personnel) they were open about their history and relationship because where we were was a totally accepting and open environment at the time and they had nothing to fear. everyone else was lgbtq or friends there. [i realize i'm being a little evasive here, but i don't want to take any chance of compromising their jobs in any way.]
i was very proud to meet these two men. they are doing something they truly believe in by being in the military, yet the sense of how careful they knew they had to be and hiding who they really are has to be so much hard work, and they talked about the impact it has on their lives, both together and individually.
i felt a sense of sadness, and i told them this, because no matter what we've all gone through, they have to deal with something that has to be so constraining it has to be stifling at times.
i also feel safer because of them; they are helping to protect me and the country. their sense of dedication and duty was so obvious. they wouldn't want to be doing anything else. i applaud them wholeheartedly.
i don't see an end to DADT in the near future; i see Obama doing exactly what he did when he was here in Illinois as a state senator - placating everyone. i see him working for one thing and one thing only - reelection in four years!
anyone who was hoping he would make the changes he talked about is a dreamer. take for example his repeated statements during the campaigh that he was "not in favor of" same-sex marriage. for those of you who may not have heard, Chicago's "Windy City Times" has a taped interview with him when he was running for state office when he "explicitly" stated that he supports total marriage equality.
what do you think changed his mind...?
i also feel a sense of helplessness for the two guys i mention above. i don't know what i can do. i support Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) monetarily and spreading the word on doing away with DADT, but i don't feel it to be enough.
no one should be forced to live in fear of being who they are. if you're older, as i am, i have to tell you that we have only felt a tiny amount of the fear of being outed compared to them. if you are younger, i want to tell you how lucky you are because it has been so much easier for you. i also thank the gods, fate or whatever you believe or don't believe in that it is going to become easier - just not as fast as we want or it should.
i'm a dreamer. i live in a world inside my head that wants everyone to be treated equally.
i want the adage focused in Leviticus, by JC, and with the "Golden Rule" to be a reality.
i'm a child of the 60's, the Age of Aquarius.
i have a strong sense in the Hopi Native-American principle of When hope is gone life is over.
i refuse to give up that hope, but it gets harder every day when i see and hear the new ways man extends his inhumanity to others...
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