Pentagon warns gay troops to stay silent for now

[villager]

Source: AP

Pentagon warns gay troops to stay silent for now

By ANNE FLAHERTY

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is warning gay troops that speaking up could still get them in trouble.

A new Pentagon memo says there is a "legally uncertain environment" while the Obama administration appeals a court ruling striking down the "don't ask, don't tell" law. The law banned gays from serving openly in the military.

The Defense Department has said it will comply with the court order while the case winds its way through the legal system. But in a memo released Friday, the Pentagon's top personnel chief says troops might suffer "adverse consequences for themselves or others" if they change their conduct and then the court's decision is reversed.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39689429

[Skittles]

1. don't tell, just shut the fuck up

DISGUSTING

[Zenlitened]

2. Gay troops reply, "No shit, Sherlock,"

These folks aren't stupid. "Fortunately," they are well accustomed to living with the knowledge that they can be stabbed in the back at any time.

Nothing uncertain about that.

[HillbillyBob]

3. I'm down to two working braincells and I am getting whiplash

No one is gonna come out of this bloody mess looking good.
Its like a a a a. Hell I don't know.
Our equal rights are being twisted into somehow taking the rights of a bunch of loud people who want to jam theocracy down our throats.
How long before we get another Matthew Shepard or Dr Tiller? Or maybe Ok city? What does it take to get through to those who are screaming for 'their rights' to condemn or other wise harm us is seriously against their supposed saviors take on things?

[FourScore]

4. I wish the whole lot of them and would join together and come out in unison right now.

Wouldn't that be hysterical if literally thousands of them came out in unison right now? Now THAT would be something...

[laurel46]

13. And come out via a musical and a parade.

Aren't the troops tired of being slaves to the pentagon? Seems like a good time to snuggle with a buddy in the same bunk. There needn't be sex, just ambiguous behavior in order to get discharged. I have wondered why more troops don't do this, claim gay, to get out.

Reminds me of a true story;

In Denmark, when Hitler ordered the Danish Jews to wear arm bands the people revolted and the king swore EVERY Dane would wear an arm band to protect them from persecution. It is claimed the King rode down the street, on his horse, sporting the arm band. Perhaps it's time for the rest of us to wear gay pride pins or arm bands (rainbow fatigues) and imply we are gblt. It would cut down on gay bashing if so many would do this for our fellow dems and logs. A rainbow is a circle and we surround them. I am not joking about a bunch of us claiming we are gblt to increase the numbers so the attacks decrease.


edited to clarify I am pro gblt

[FourScore]

14. I LOVE this idea. We could start GAY DAY, only it never ends. n/t

[No Elephants]

26. They joined despite DADT bc they wanted to serve.

[Richard Steele]

29. That takes some serious BRAVERY right there. nm

[No Elephants]

34. Yep. Then again, anyone member of the GLBT community, civilian or miltary, has a lot of experience

choosing between bravery or misery--and most likely gets a good measure of misery, no matter what he or she chooses.

[Bolo Boffin]

5. Shorter DoD: don't tell yet or you'll be shovel-ready. n/t

[kgnu_fan]

6. Pentagon is afraid of gay, Wikileaks, own soldiers, Iraqi people ... and its own shadows

[HillWilliam]

10. Yeah, some "brave, bold fighting force" the top brass is

The rank and file troops don't seem to have a problem. It's the leaders who can't lead, sitting on overpadded arses with a thumb in each end, waiting for someone to holler "SWITCH!!".

[Vincardog]

7. Wrong answer. I think EVERY SINGLE troop should come out today. If they want to start over with a

Homophobic he-manly crew let them start today.
It could be just like the general strikes they have in real democracies like FRANCE and Germany.

[Bette Noir]

12. "I am Spartacus"? That'd be something to watch.

[No Elephants]

27. Our religiously-indoctrinated, obedience-trained troops?

[speppin]

8. And the Commander in Chief says Lets have an orderly whack a doooooooo!

[Jumping John]

9. The people who take the oath to uphold the Constitution and laws of the US are failing miserably

[Lucky 13]

11. "adverse consequences for themselves or others" allow me to translate:

If any faggot does open his mouth, well dammit.. it's not like he wasn't warned! He just asked for a beatdown.


If this policy doesn't change there is some part of me that wants every single gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, queer or in some other way "different" to immediately out themselves and take their discharge. It won't happen of course. But what a moment that would be for them to discover how many of us there really are.

[kpete]

15. Pentagon cautions gays about revealing identity

Source: Reuters

By David Alexander David Alexander – Fri Oct 15, 3:29 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Friday it was abiding by a court injunction not to discharge openly gay men and women in the U.S. military but warned them against changing their behavior while legal challenges continue.

"We note for service members that altering their personal conduct in this legally uncertain environment may have adverse consequences for themselves and others should the court's decision be reversed," Undersecretary of Defense Clifford Stanley said in a memo.

California-based U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips ordered the military on Tuesday to stop enforcing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy barring openly gay men and women from serving in the armed forces.

She also directed the military to drop any pending investigations and discharges after ruling that the policy violated the Constitution.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101015/ts_nm/us_usa_military_gays

[MineralMan]

16. Precisely the reason I posted this earlier today.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9325362

Any potentially reversible end to DADT means that career military personnel should avoid letting their sexual orientation be known. It could easily end a career. Until a permanent reversal of DADT is in place, caution is the best course.

[Kolesar]

17. 10,000 of them could overload the military justice system

Make history

[SkyDaddy7]

18. I know many here on DU don't like this but...

if President Obama simply signed an executive order stopping DADT then all those in the military who exposed who they were would have been discharged if DADT was not permanently done away with.

I really do love what my country is suppose to be but right now I am honestly embarrassed to be an American. The open discrimination of not just the GLTB community but all the other minorities in this country that the Right Wing uses to scare white Christians into voting just disgust me!

I just hope that the GOP does not win the House and/or the Senate...If they do then things are just going to get much worse!

[TheWraith]

20. ONCE AGAIN, Obama CANNOT sign an EO repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell. Period.

DADT is statute law, passed by congress, and it cannot be repealed by executive branch fiat. It can only be repealed by Congress.

[awoke_in_2003]

21. "It can only be repealed by Congress"

but it can be ruled unconstitutional by the SC (which, of course, is highly unlikely)

[Karenina]

23. OR upon appeal the Admin can say...

We're appealing to fulfill our DOJ responsibility, HOWEVER we agree that it's UNCONSTITUTIONAL. It's been done before.
See Rachel for more details...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#39679402

[TheWraith]

24. Actually, it's highly LIKELY that the SCOTUS would knock it down.

Kennedy has a very good record on gay rights issues.

[No Elephants]

30. Vis a vis state law, maybe-- not federal laws--and federal laws "regulating" the military, no less.

Differences in the facts of a case matter a lot in court. And, while Kennedy has ruled in favor of gay rights in some cases on Libertarian type grounds, he is no liberal.

Besides, this is currently under review by Congress, the President and the military. You'd have to be a fairly activist Justice to say five judges should pre-empt all that.

I'd say Kennedy's favorable vote is a possiblity, not "a very good chance." And, a favorable vote from all of Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan ain't necessarily a lock , either.

[No Elephants]

28. Legally, NOT true.

[SkyDaddy7]

36. Maybe you should read what I said ONCE AGAIN!

Calm down your ego is over heating!

[saigon68]

25. the Right Wing uses to scare white Christians into voting

Lots of that shit going on right now

[No Elephants]

31. Which wing allows that?

[saigon68]

32. The Reich wing

LOL

[No Elephants]

33. LOL

But no.

[ProudDad]

37. If Obama ORDERED the military to cease all DADT activity

they would have to snap to attention, salute and fucking CEASE ALL DADT ACTIVITY!

Just like the military had to when Truman ended segregation in the military.

This would give us at least 2 years for the fucking idiot generals to the fucking idiot 2nd Lts. and the fucking idiot Congress to find out the world ain't ending, the sky ain't falling and vote to end it...

Of course, my choice would be for all gay folks and non-gay folk to quit volunteering for the legions of Empire who are helping the Empire fuck up the Earth!

[valerief]

19. I'd love to see soldiers pull a Spartacus. Let 'em all say they're gay.

Let 'em all be discharged.

Then again, maybe that's what this govt wants. They depend more on Xe and similar mercenaries rather than their own soldiers anyway.

It sure would be a helluva statement if the soldiers did that. Probably wouldn't get any coverage, though. It would be like multi-million-person antiwar protest. Never happened.

Forget I mentioned this. I keep forgetting how truth is never televised.

[No Elephants]

35. Many of us would, but that is a dream, at least in this generation. Please see Reply 27.

[Le Taz Hot]

22. Quick! Back in the closet!

:mad: :puke:

[EFerrari]

38. The politics of fear at their finest.

F#ck you, Robert Gates, war criminal.

[Imagevision]

39. Pentagon, stay silent for now, those getting killed in Iraq-Afgan, we appreciate it...