Tuesday, September 20, 2011

DADT = RIP

Today Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is repealed! Today gays and lesbian can now serve openly in the arm forces and I am extremely glad that they can now do so openly. As I say in my profile I believe in Equality, and today gays and lesbian can now die equally for their country; however, trans-people still cannot. A trans-person can still be discharged for who they are.

The LGBT newspaper the Houston Chronicle reports that in Boston,
Gay rights supporters to stage protest in Boston
Houston Chronicle
Published September 20, 2011

BOSTON (AP) — Supporters for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights are marking the end of the military "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy by staging a protest in Boston to draw attention to the fact that transgender American are still unable to serve openly in the military.
However, the LGBT magazine the Advocate does not mention that that trans-people are not covered in the repeal of DADT. In the mainstream media, there is nothing that mentions the trans-people are not on the CBS News web-site, nor the Time web-site, nor on MSNBC website, nor on CNN, nor on… well you get the picture. Now let’s see if the LGBT organizations fight just as hard to prevent trans-people from being discharged or will they turn their attention to repeal of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act).

When Sen. Lieberman came to the UConn Rainbow Center to talk about DAPT last year, I asked him about DADT and if it covered trans-people and he said no, it only covers gays and lesbian. When I posted that on a national LGBT blog and I got pounced on by over a half a dozen gays who said that I was trying to hijack DADT and make it into a trans-issue. It is a LGBT issue folks, we should be working together to allow anyone to serve in the military, not just gays and lesbians. It was the trans-community that was thrown under the bus again when we tried to fight for our rights.

Just for some background information, all other NATO countries allow trans-people to serve in the military and trans-people have served right alongside of our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. So this wouldn’t by like the US military blazing a trail, but more like the US catching up to the rest of the world.

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