GOP Congress members plan to delay/prevent implementation of DADT repeal

When the House Armed Services Committee meets tomorrow to discuss 2012 business, several Republican lawmakers have announced they will offer amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act that would either slow or block implementation of the Don't Ask/Don't Tell repeal already passed by Congress, according to a bulletin today from Fred Sainz, HRC's VP of Communications. It's these congresspeople's right wing social conservative attempt to make an end-run around the will of the House, Senate, President and (by poll numbers) majority of American voters.

Here's the hall of shame. Please, let's let them know we're NOT happy with them for trying to codify socially-backward, fearfulness and bigotry once again ... even after the train has all but left the station.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) 

Mr. Hunter claims approval of the DADT repeal by the President, Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the previous requirement suggested by critics) ... doesn't satisfy him. He's now asking for approval by all the Chiefs.

It should be expected that if/when all branch Chiefs do sign off, Rep. Duncan will try to move the goalpost once again and come up with some additional difficult standard the repeal must achieve in order to be enacted.

Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO)

Rep. Todd will try to keep Department of Defense facilities from being available for same-sex marriages, regardless of the laws of the particular state in which the wedding would occur.

He wants to bar chaplains or civilian DOD employees from officiating at such a ceremony even if the wedding is otherwise fully legal.





Rep. Steve Palazzo (R-MS)

Mr. Palazzo will try to include language on behalf of servicemembers whose 1st Amendment free speech and religious/moral rights are trampled, he claims, by their having to serve in the same military as open gays and lesbians.

Mr. Palazzo feels one should be able to live gay-free if one's religion dictates, and that it's the military's and Federal government's job to ensure this.




Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO)

Mrs. Hartzler wants to essentially reinstate DOMA, the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act, which our Attorney General recently dismissed as unconstitutional. Hartzler sees an opportunity for this in the DADT repeal, claiming it's necessary to block same-sex marriage in the military because of a "heightened need to protect marital and family stability."  She does not elaborate about what, exactly, she'd like the see marriage protected against.



While their arguments and positions sound/look pretty absurd and obscene when presented as plainly as I have here, they are quite serious about this and will try to slow/kill our military's progress if at all possible.

If one of these politicians represents you, I encourage you to drop them a note TODAY and let them know how displeased you are with their shameful obstruction of basic societal progress. It doesn't take Nostradamus to forecast that history will not look kindly on these people and their actions. But let's not leave it to history while a generation of young men and women in uniform suffer. Let's make a difference TODAY.

BPJ
5-10-11

Source information for this article from HRC, cnn.com and wikipedia.com