The military might soon see an overwhelming number of dirty little secrets come out.
Late last week, while Gainesville was worrying about its own “Fahrenheit 451” episode, a California federal judge ruled (finally) that the United States military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was unconstitutional.
Saying it violated gay members of the military’s First Amendment and due process rights, U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips ignited the fire that gay Americans and allies alike have sought since Bill Clinton’s administration placed a gag order on the gays with guns.
And at a time when gay members of our military who are just as well trained in services
necessary to serve their country and who can speak languages just as well as their
heterosexual counterparts are being fired for coming out publicly in an open act of defiance, we’re glad change has come in the form of judicial action.
And we’re disappointed it still hasn’t come in legislative form.
A repeal of the controversial, and now apparently unconstitutional, 17-year-old
law has yet to come in the U.S. Senate following Sen. John McCain’s warning of a filibuster. We’re hopeful the new ruling will jump-start the Senate’s actions to end the policy that President Barack Obama promised he would put an end to during his administration.
We’re hopeful the appeal process will not result in a reversal of Phillips’ ruling, so the military can stop bickering about this discriminatory policy and get back to what it does best: spending trillions of our dollars killing people across the globe.
