The Obama Administration has succeeded in securing a stay of a federal court’s injunction on the don’t ask, don’t tell policy. The Ninth Circuit agreed to the demand of the Administration that it should be able to continue to bar openly gay military personnel and continue to discharge those who reveal that they are gay. The policy is now again active pending review of the lower court decision.
As noted earlier, even if the Administration felt obligated to use its discretion to appeal the ruling of U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips, it clearly could have allowed the injunction to stay in place pending review. Instead, it fought to be able to continue the discrimination against gay and lesbian citizens.
For a short time, military recruiters were ordered to accept openly gay and lesbian applicants. The Obama Administration quickly put an end to that brief period of non-discrimination.
Source: here
HenMan
Just an update. I had to be out of town, so I don’t know if the Westboro group came or not. There was not one item in either TV or newspaper reporting. If they came, this was the perfect way to respond.
Many, many people lined the streets holding large flags and signs which would have protected the family from these jerks. I’m proud of the citizens, and the news outlets for making their protest irrelevant. Good on them.
Swarthmore mom- Thanks for the info on the Log Cabin Replicans working against their own interests. Rep. Patrick Murphy is one of 10 Democrats running for Congress who are supported by VoteVets.org. All are military veterans who are committed to working on veterans issues and progressive issues in general. I have been supporting VoteVets because one of the major issues (and most expensive issues) of the next 50 or 60 years will be taking care of the Iraq and Afghanistan vets. Large numbers of them have been physically and mentally wounded by being repeatedly sent into combat far beyond the limits of human endurance. Suicides, broken families, and homelessness are common problems among them. The people who did this to them will be the first to vote down the VA budgets necessary to help them back to physical and mental health. If anyone here is looking for progressive candidates worthy of our support, take a look at VoteVets.org