Brody's Scribbles... What the U. S. Needs Is A Gay Superhero!

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Jan 25 | Yup, that's me in the picture to the left, 'The Pink Crusader.' You folks like my new look? Svelte and sexy in uniform eh? Yeah right, more like I'd inflict serious damage on my tender parts and not so tender parts getting into that get up not to mention the fact that after the struggle was over I'd resemble the Michelin Man at my 50 year old fat self. Now, if I could just learn to land properly... Hey, but I'm here to battle the forces of evil! The Christibans, the Conservative Rightists, the Anti-Gay We Love to Hate All LGBT Defamation  League.... *sigh* well so I can daydream eh?

Once again the spectre of painful discourse over the issue of Gay men & women serving in the armed forces of the United States raises it ugly head as both sides sharpen their rhetorical knives.

According to Bryan Thomas,spokesperson for the U. S. Senate Armed Services Committee: Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) has made arrangements for Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of Joint of Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen to testify on the issue, although an exact day for the hearing hasn’t been scheduled. 

“Sen. Levin said we have not yet set a date for the DADT hearing, but we are looking for a date that works in the last few days of January,” Thomas said. “He also said the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will be present.”

Here's the thing- Practically the rest of the free world allows Gays & Lesbians to serve in their country's military including my homeland of Canada. So what is it with the U. S.? Is it because this country is so sexually repressed or is it because the Christiban minority has everybody in a stranglehold over supposed interpretations of abominations and sinful behaviour? 

Which brings me to an article that was published today in the Wall Street Journal's Op-Ed pages by Richard Socarides a former White House presidential adviser under Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1999 in a variety of senior positions, including Special Assistant to the President for LGBT issues. His Op-Ed piece is entitled; 'Ask Obama About Don't Ask, Don't Tell- Gay voters are growing impatient for equality.

Socarides at one point states: 

"What is especially troubling, however, is Mr. Obama's oversensitivity to a dwindling minority of bigots on this issue. Hundreds of military careers have been destroyed on his watch for no valid reason. The country has been deprived of the talents of these service members and has wasted millions of dollars on their training. Many wonder when their president will show the same kind of concern for the constitutional rights of gay American service members as he has for enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay. Many wonder what the administration's willingness to treat gay Americans as second-class citizens says to Uganda and other countries that are considering laws that would subject gays to imprisonment and even death."

Hmm, why do I have a sudden urge to find a telephone booth and change into my alter ego, 'The Pink Crusader,' and fly to the White House & ask the President? Then Socarides finishes his Op-Ed with this point; 

"An increasingly frustrated bloc of gay voters—angry over marriage setbacks in California, Maine, New Jersey and New York and emboldened by Ted Olson's and David Boies's high-profile effort to declare unconstitutional laws that prohibit gay marriage—are growing impatient for equality. As Mr. Olson said in federal district court in San Francisco recently, discriminatory laws serve only to "label gay and lesbian persons as different, inferior, unequal and disfavored."

As I read the comments afterwards what really got my attention was this one particular comment by Gary Gill that gave me pause. It rather succinctly sums up an argument that numerous advocates both for and against Gay rights on DADT and other LGBT issues are having.

"I was reading a story about Johnny Mathis the other day and the author of the article said that Mathis was uncomfortable with his "gayness" because Mathis said that it wasn't what he was because it was such a small part of who he was. I also recently saw a video on ESPN about Johnny Weir and Mr. Weir was asked about his sexual orientation (what an embarrassing question) because of his flamboyant custom selection when he figure skates and Mr. Weir told the interviewer that he wanted to be judged by "who he is and not what he is." The sexual orientation questions stopped on a dime right there.

The point of all of this is that I am bewildered why anyone, whether gay or straight, would identify themselves with an act that takes up so little time during a 168 week. To tell me that you are "gay" presumes that I care whether you are or are not and like most Americans the answer is we don't!

The real problem with coming out about your "gayness" is that it diminishes who you really are. What you do in your life that makes other peoples' lives better. How you help people in your every day life and how you define the world around you. In the army you are a soldier or an officer or a trainer or a cook and on and on and on. You are not gay when you serve in the army. And no one cares to know if you are or are not.

To me the attestation of one's gayness says more about their immaturity than anything else. It reminds me of when I was in high school and one of my friends fibbed about having sex for the first time with a girl I knew. It was so childish of him to brag about having sex then as it remains today.

I have always believed that the don't ask don't tell policy is the best policy that the Military could use to ensure strong mature soldiering units and at the same time not knee-jerk gays out of the military who were soldiers first and gay somewhere down the line . In the end, if you have to "brag" about being gay when there is so much more about you than that, then you demonstrate to everyone that you don't have the maturity to carry a gun for the United States of America.

Stonewall Inn is over 40 years old now, isn't it about time for the gay movement to grow up? Isn't it about time for the gay movement to offer up to society the better you and not just the "gay" you?"

I liked his comment, maybe I should offer him my tights eh? With all this controversy maybe what the U. S. really needs is just a Gay superhero.