Editorial-- Secretary Gates Notes What Everyone Else Already Knew Re: DADT Repeal

By Brody Levesque | WASHINGTON DC -- When speaking to an Associated Press correspondent yesterday, outgoing Defence Secretary Robert Gates told the AP that "he sees no roadblocks to ending the ban on openly gay military service, and if the top officers of each service recommend moving ahead on the repeal before the end of the month, he will endorse it."

However, the most telling remark that Gates made in the interview was this one:

"I think people are pretty satisfied with the way this process is going forward,” he said. “I think people have been mildly and pleasantly surprised at the lack of pushback in the training.”

The Defence Secretary acknowledged the one fact that is driving the opposition to new levels of insanity with rage- heteronormal folk who get to know LGBTQ persons on a one to one basis, realise quite rapidly that the LGBTQ human beings are not the proverbial monster under the bed or any threat that need be feared or eliminated once they get to know them.

Although I have not seen, heard, nor been told of reactions to Secretary Gate's words by Family Values groups, I'm fairly certain that Tony Perkins, Elaine Donnelly, Bryan Fischer, and their ilk will weigh in once more with tales of "woe is us," despair, and statements of how this repeal will destroy the combat effectiveness of the U. S. military.

But the reality of the Defence Secretary's remarks are mitigated somewhat when you consider statements made by the darlings of the far right like World Net Daily's founder & editor Joseph Farah who said the following:

"That's how sodomy moved from being a sin 10 years ago to being a 'right.' It's not a right. It's a sin. And, in a civilized, self-governing society, when the majority of people ban sinful behavior – from murder, to theft, to adultery, to child molestation – they have the right and the duty to legislate against it. Courts have no business overruling the will of the people on such matters by dreaming up 'rights' that are to be found nowhere in the Constitution, the Bible or the history of mankind."

Granted, contextually Farah was referring to same-sex marriage, the problem is that the theme remains the same with those in the far right who adhere to that philosophy.

The LGBTQ community needs to continue to focus its efforts on making the rest of humanity realise that the LGBTQ community is simply a variant of the human species whom are exactly the same in every respect to the heteronormal. The LGBTQ community needs more statements such as  the the Defence Secretary's to drive the truth home.

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