Exclusive: White House Responds to Gates DADT Letter

I never heard noting in history about President FDR or General Eisenhower asking the troops their opinion about invading Normandy or giving them that option or going home for a 30 day leave. And now we want our troops opinion as to whether or not they would want some gay solider to see their family jewels in the shower, when we already do and trust me, from what I have seen, they have nothing to worry about. From a gay veteran.

"...legislative repeal prior to the completion of a DOD study "would send a very damaging message to our men and women in uniform that in essence their views, concerns, and perspectives do not matter." Not to put too fine a point on it, but they don't. They don't matter. They've never mattered in regard to setting policy. It's not fair, but that's the military. When my mother joined the Air Force, they told her that, if she were a man, they would have wanted to train her as a jet mechanic, but women didn't do that work, so she went into another career field (where she met my father, actually). What she wanted to do didn't matter--they told her what to do. And when she got pregnant with my oldest sister, her commander told her she shouldn't come back until she could carry the coffee urn, in spite of the fact that she was working in weather, not food service. What she wanted to do didn't really matter. Nobody asked her.

Obama will stall and stall and many more gays will have their careers and lives ruined by DADT until the gay community finally says, "Screw you! Enough of this deceit!" The leading activists should have led this cheer long before now. Obama has made chumps of this segment of his base, and they keep taking it and making allowances for him. Soon Obama and the homophobes surrounding him in his Oval Office will invite gay leaders and activists in, and they will come to socialize once again, be told to be patient, and listen to what are basically lies; have lunch, a beer, or whatever; and brag to their friends about their big connections at the top. Would we look like those jerks in "the tea party" if we started marching in the streets?

DADT will be repealed AFTER the midterm elections. This is politics 101. Not to say we shouldn't keep the pressure on though. From day one of his presidency, beginning with his invitation to Rick Warren to lead the inaugural prayer, Obama has shored up his right flank to insure a second term. That has been frustrating (Rick Warren) and lead to some shitty policy: health "care", patriot act, off shore drilling, (I could fill up the rest of this box my Obama grievances) but at the end of the day it was either him or John McCain. And in 2012 and it will be between him or... Palin?, Romney?, Huckabee?, Demint? Long and short is, he has us by our balls. DADT WILL be repealed, when it's politically less costly. Not now.

What more does the Prez or Gates need to hear/ We want equal rights under the law. I hope Congress and the Democratic legislature bring this up for vote, stick in a must vote bill and then we can move on to DOMA,

2nd Davya

Gate's letter is an attempt to block the legislative action needed due to SEPARATION OF POWERS. He acts at the pleasure of the POTUS. Obama clearly wants duck and run on this one. If he gets re-elected he can propose the repeal of DADT with nothing to lose. Of course he will be a lame duck and there will be a fair chance the GOP will control at least one house. He will then blame the GOP saying "Hey I tried!" Which is complete crap. We could have passed this legislation right now with sufficient leadership. Sadly, that is exactly what is missing both in the White House and the pathetic halls of the HRC. I once was one who regularly sent them money, but once I realized that all they cared about was their jobs I left HRC and strongly recommend everyone else does. There are so many other lgbt groups who actually care about our progress.

People. In this country, we have a little thing called THE SEPARATION OF POWERS. What this means is that, the PRESIDENT, can't make decisions for the LEGISLATURE. A MORATORIUM is a LEGISLATIVE measure. Calm the fuck down, remember that lgbt friendly Presidents are rare- we're 5% of the population my friends, Obama's sweat enough for us. The more you bitch, the more you give the lunatic right a field day.

The implementation of DADT did't need the views concerns or perspectives of service members when it went into effect, so why is it needed now? Can you imagine Abraham Lincoln saying, " Before we can repeal slavery we must first have an exit strategy which includes every slave to have a college degree and a job first". Looks like it's the usual : gays can be used, abused, re-used and re-abused and maybe toss them a bone.

Here's a thought: It is far more likely a gay man could be raped by a straight man than the other way around. Think about it. As far as checking each other out, that is part of our male nature straight or gay. Besides, most guys are limp in the showers so who really knows how much a guy carries when he is soft? This entire discussion has become absurd. Twenty-three nations including Israel allow gays and lesbians to serve openly. A large part of this problem today is the number of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians who have filled the ranks of the US Armed Forces, and how their intolerance breeds contempt, suspicion and denial of the rights of others. We likely will be having this same conversation a decade from now. Obama should have the balls to issue an executive order and get it done with. Logically with a contentious election coming up this November, he won't do it. It's ALL ABOUT POLITICS, and gays once again are sidelined. I am a US VETERAN.