IMHO In My Humble Opinion

It is amazing to me that the Senate still hasn't gotten around to passing any legislation that will allow for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, which prevents LGBT service members from serving their country while being honest.

Why hasn't this been passed?

For one thing, I thought the Democratic party had majorities in Congress as well as the presidency. What does it take to pass some legislation? The lesson from 8 years of the Bush presidency was that it didn't even take a majority for Republicans to get their legislative agenda passed; why can't the Democrats manage to do anything despite actually having the seats? Why can't the Democratic party actually stand up for their purported platform, and set in motion the repeal of this discriminatory law?

From the Democratic Party's web site: "Democrats will fight to end discrimination based on race, sex, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and disability in every corner of our country, because that's the America we believe in." (emphasis added.) So why haven't we had some movement on the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (not to mention the Employment Non-Discrimination Act), which would help end discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity?

It's not like this is actually a controversial opinion: for at least this entire calendar year, public opinion polls show that a vast majority of US citizens believe that Don't Ask, Don't Tell should be repealed. Even if you restrict the poll to Republicans (where much of the roadblock is in Congress), a majority of Republicans think repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a good idea.

But until Congress gets their act together, the following is true (thanks to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network for the following list):

• A service member's middle school teacher can still out the service member 10 years after he came out to her in social studies class;
• A service member can still be discharged if he reports that someone has threatened to kill him for being gay;
• A service member can still be fired for hugging someone of the same sex;
• A service member can still be fired for getting married; and
• A service member can still be fired for saying she would like to return from Iraq to care for her dying girlfriend.