Comments on: Obama seeks military assessment before repealing ban on gays

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 03:10:33 +0000

Just so all of you know. The President said that he would get a comprehensive assessment before he brought this issue to Congress all along. This is not new news. He said this throughout his campaign.

I would rather that he knew what he was up against beforehand rather than have a repeat of Clinton. I am glad that my President is smart enough to get all the facts before just trying to do something and failing outright. I wish more people thought before they took action or spoke. We would get a lot more done if we thought things out and found a way to do it right, right from the start.

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By: Lexxvs

Lexxvs — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:36:03 +0000

Do we have to wait 100 more years until a gay president is elected so this military issue can change? Hope not. Homophobia is a hard, hard rock to grind.

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By: apYrs

apYrs — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:29:34 +0000

many of the allies in NATO have experience of L&G soldiers, not least the UK, whose ethos is closest to the US in terms of hysteria about the gay sex.

There appear to have been NO problems in the British Armed Forces; the same should obtain in the US

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By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:16:04 +0000

The US military are a law upon themselves.

How many gay US service men/women fought and died during World War I, II and other wars in which the US has been involved? Countless…

When the military needs manpower, they turn a blind eye. As soon as peace is achieved, they could not care less!

For exemple, Allan Bérubé's book, "Coming Out under fire" tells that after WWII, 9,000 were "officially" declared homosexual and dishonorably discharged. Their war record was negligible.

This law, outdated & discriminatory, ought to be repealed…but as Simon Murphy askes, does Obama, now that he is President, have the bottle to do it?

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By: Godwyns

Godwyns — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:28:27 +0000

Your article still call Obama president-elect; an error but its best watched and presented well.

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By: Simon Murphy

Simon Murphy — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:24:45 +0000

Worrying. I hope he's not trying to weasel out of his commitment to overturning the ban. His inclusion of the homophobic facist Rick Warren at his inauguration; his opposition to gay marriage and now his delay at repealing the ban should leave gay people worried about his commitment to equality. There is absolutely no reason to have a study to assess the impact of gay soldiers on the army. It would be massively offensive to do a similar study on the inclusion of women or ethnic minorities. Likewise it is offensive to do this to gay people. If Obama chickens out on this then he will lose the support of many gay people. Then again now that he's elected he probably doesn't care. He's just a politiciam after all.

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