When the rot begins, how quickly it seeps through everything.
“Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) was the official United States policy on service by gays and lesbians in the military, which lasted for over 17 years until Obama ended it on September 20, 2011. Less than four years later, an Army general introduced his husband at a public event attended by many top brass, including Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.
Rowan Scarborough reports for The Washington Times, June 9, 2015, that at the Pentagon’s 4th Gay Pride celebration, master of ceremonies U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Randy S. Taylor introduced his husband, Lucas.
Taylor pointed to Lucas, who was seated in the same row as Defense Secretary Carter, Army Secretary John McHugh and other senior officials, “My husband Lucas is sitting up front here.”
Taylor said his husband has subjugated his own career to support Taylor’s frequent moves over an 18-year relationship: “We bet everything on my Army career.”
Trained as an infantryman, Taylor has served in the Army for 27 years and was deployed to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a communications and information specialist who is now assigned to the Army office of chief of information.
The Pentagon’s 4th Gay Pride celebration showcased a month of homosexual-themed posters and history. The event kicked off with the National Anthem, sung by the Rock Creek Singers, who are with the Gay Men’s Chorus.
A panel discussion featured a homosexual Marine officer, a homosexual Army sergeant who is a criminal investigator, a lesbian chaplain and a transgender “woman,” Amanda Simpson, who is executive director of the Army’s Office of Energy Initiatives.
All four introduced their wives, husbands, and, in one case, a fiancé before a filled auditorium.
Simpson is the first openly transgender political appointee in any presidential administration. She said she had been chosen for the civilian post because she was “the best person to do the job.”
Although Carter gave no hint of whether the Obama administration will drop the ban on transgenders and transexuals wearing the uniform, he emphasized his commitment to equal rights: “We need to be a meritocracy. We can’t afford to close ourselves off to any body …. We must start from a position of inclusivity.”
Warner Todd Huston of Right Wing News says it best:
We’ve gone from “don’t ask, don’t tell,” to “tell when we didn’t even ask.”
I don’t want to celebrate gays in the military. I want to celebrate heroes in the military. Their being gay does not make them notable. Being brave in the face of fire does.
H/t John Molloy
~Éowyn
