It Gets A Little Better Pretty Slowly

With all the Don't Ask, Don't Tell tweets fluttering about, I wonder: does anyone else remember when DADT itself was a crazy liberal idea? I was proud we passed DADT. It was progress.

Back then, John McCain would have cried "Repeal DADT" because the thought of secret gays in the military was worse to him than the status quo. You could call the status quo HIMS: "homosexuality is clearly incompatible with military service." That was in 1982. I remember that.

Before that? GTEI: Gay Thoughts Equal Insanity. TGTD: Think Gay Thoughts? Discharged! TGSG: That Guy Seems Gay. So That Guy would be shot to death with no repercussions.

I don't want to stick with DADT. But if Clinton had tried in the '90s to jump from "Homosexuality is Incompatible Etc." to "We Welcome Openly Gay Soldiers," that president would have failed. Just as if a president had tried in 2010 for full healthcare for everyone.

So in between we get these two compromises, shameful compared to how the US should be (and how the rest of the world is). But still, an improvement, and you can look at them either way. Someday I and my fellow liberals will be shouting, "Repeal Obamacare!" because it doesn't go far enough. For right now I have to be positive, take the compromise, and wait for ten or twenty years to take that next step.

Comments

[Jenny]

I always remember that scene in Biloxi Blues when I think of military life before Don't Ask Don't Tell, where they come and pull the guy out of lineup because the guy he was in the shower with ratted him out. I too thought DADT was so much better. People once thought that women shouldn't serve in the military either, or blacks, or Japanese, and someday maybe society will have evolved to the point that all people are equal. Maybe in my lifetime. I have hope.

[Judy Schwartz Haley]

sing it! it's a nice thought to wish that progress traveled in a straight line and any progressive president should be able to just walk right in and right all the wrongs with a sweep of his (or her) pen - but that's pretty unrealistic. two steps forward, one step back is still progress - we need to own that, and celebrate it.

[wyo]

Well said! And a very good reminder for us all.

[SurprisingWoman]

Amen, Sistah.

I really wish people, (fellow liberals like myself), would just lighten up and understand he can't change the world overnight.

Sigh

[TheQueen]

Jenny - I hope so too.
Judy Schwartz Haley - Baby steps are still steps, but it is hard when the rest of the world is up and walking.
Wyo - Still no progress on immigration though. At least not this weekend.
SurprisingWoman - Like Bill Mahr and Jon Stewart.