This should not come as much of a surprise:
Gay and lesbian service members and veterans plan to file suit Thursday challenging the constitutionality of the federal ban on gay marriage and federal policy that define a spouse as a person of the opposite sex.
The suit comes five weeks after the Pentagon ended its ban on gays in the military…
The suit also challenges provisions of federal code regarding spouses that lawyers said bar gay couples from accessing benefits provided by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Those benefits include military identification cards, access to bases, recreational programs, spousal support groups and burial rights at national cemeteries.
Long time readers of these pages will remember that this was a long ago predicted consequence of ending DADT. Once you’ve accepted that there is a “right to serve”, you have to extend other rights as well; housing, medical benefits, hospital visitations, etc. Military law is federal law, and it can and will be cited in non-military federal suits as precedence.
It remains my considered opinion that the campaign to end DADT had little to do with military service, and everything to do with nationalizing the LBGT agenda. That’s step three.
Which, farewell federalism, but well played.
So predictable. I figured ending DADT was about gay marriage, a Trojan Horse to sneak the camel’s nose under the tent.
in·cre·men·tal·ism /ˌɪnkrəˈmɛntlˌɪzəm, ˌɪŋ-/
noun, a policy of making changes, especially social changes, by degrees; gradualism.
AKA, change you can believe in.
Change that wasn’t needed, wanted or supported by the majority…..more tyranny of the minority.
But see, they’re imposing their enlightened views on the racist/sexist/homophobic/gun-loving/bitter clingers who need to obey their betters. Or something to that effect. Ready to rule from day one, eh?
Tyranny of the minority – OR – tyranny BY the minorty?
This will play well in the Base Housing area. And, who will be Queen (every pun intended) of the Wives (Spouses’) Club? Or do I date myself…do these organizations even exist anymore?
Mikey, if you date yourself that is your concern. Just so everything is between consenting adults.
This will play well in the Base Housing area. And, who will be Queen (every pun intended) of the Wives (Spouses’) Club? Or do I date myself…do these organizations even exist anymore?
Can we still make homo jokes about sailors? I mean, it’s like, traditional!
Really, one of the Captain’s Flight Physical stories was a classic in that respect.
It will be interesting to see the backlash. And there WILL be a backlash.
I blame it on the F-35 program.
Trying to make 3 variants from one basic design just is not normal.
Predictable and inevitable.
But still wrong, wrong, wrong. I pity them.
I had a physical one time and the doctor was a young guy (looked to be about 16!) just commissioned, apparently. Had a geedunk ribbon only. I was sitting on the examining table when he said ‘Chief, I’d like you to lie on your side and face the wall. Just pull your knees up and relax’. Well, you know what happened next. When he stripped off his glove I told him ‘I knew you were sweet-talking me for some reason’. I thought he’d cry. This was over 20 years ago.
That is a good one. That is the kind of thing I meant when I wrote what I did above.
The whole Iowa turret fire investigation was messed up because the NIS, having no sense of humor, mistook two sailors making stupid homo jokes about each other for actual homos.
Unfortunately, this suit represents only the activists’ lowest-lying fruit.
There is more, much more to come… and a lot of hungry lawyers on the landscape to assure it all does.
+1 Yes, they have an even greater agenda. They won’t be done until the country is dust and anarchy reigns. That’s when the marxists will move.
Yep, sound like the same-old same-old on the LGBTIOP-OMG-WTF front.
In other news, “Help us Neptunus-Lex Kenobi, you’re our only hope!”
BattleField 3 – Going Hunting, Jet Carrier Take Off – video of the latest combat sim.
My personal computer lacks the horsepower even to watch the video in HD, but the effort in simulation is still plain.
The graphics are to die for. The dialog is to die from. After reading so much of our esteemed host’s understated prose, even a brief exposure to gaming’s finest may lead to a fatal reaction, or at least the destruction of a computer monitor.
Never the less, I beg that some brave soul assay the task, in order to suggest language more appropriate to the situation and naval aviation, befitting the moment without losing tension as the current dialog accomplishes.
Where to begin?
How ’bout a right hand clearing turn off the waist cat? For a start.
Still, pretty cool graphics.
I do video games as a hobby — when it’s 20 miles to town the cost of a $50 game I can play for several months or years works out to a pretty decent price for entertainment.
And I can tell you, for all the first-person shooters out there, there are darned few being programmed by anybody who knows how to fly or how to shoot or ever soldiered. The good news is that the larger game shops are starting to hire consultants and are taking their programming staff to the range.
Consulting gig, Lex? Maybe your employer has a couple of two-seat units they could strap into for a fee? Or maybe you happen to know of somebody with an old Varga who might like some customers?
It’s a multi-billion dollar industry. Now that the computer and video card can render images that rival film, realism is what’s selling.
– Max
This is why we need to elect Michael Z. Williamson dictator. (Having been born in Wales, he is not eligible to be President.) Aside from being a most excellent SF writer and a Sergeant in the Indiana Air Guard, he has promised me a job as throttleman on the wood chipper when it comes time to take care of Florida voters and Florida LEOs.
I think I have enough credibility with Mr. Williamson that we could make Lex at least a Vice-Admiral, with full pay of course and no duties except to hang out at the Naval Observatory with his family and occasionally phone in some advice. Oh yeah, he would be required to walk around wearing a sword from time to time, because that would be cool and manly.
What a Piker. If I were dictator, I’d make Lex Fleet Admiral and put him to work cleaning out the Navy of all the very dead wood.
I’m afraid the OPOs (Ossifer Procurement Office) would have to work overtime to replace all the very dead wood FADM Lex would displace.
I did not wish to overreach, and only asked for what might reasonably be granted. But yeah, I like your idea better. Run it past Mike. I’m sure he would be accomodating to you.
You can find his site by looking him up at http://www.Baen.com. You should check out his next-to-last novel, “Contact with Chaos”, which he wrote while deployed in Iraq. It is most excellent, and I believe his best yet.
Mike is a brave man, and had “Pagan” on his dogtags, knowing that if captured by those guys they would immediately take his head. Maybe we can get him to go to church?
I haven’t read the applicable change, but I’m pretty sure the DADT repeal simply deleted any reference to homosexuality from the UCMJ. It didn’t establish any right to serve, simply removed a pre-existing (and totally arbitrary) impediment.
The only thing the repeal has done is allow service members to file suit against DOMA. It will be no different than the other challenges working through the courts. This is going to change nothing except the bottom lines of some law firms.
Without doubt, the proponents of ending DADT — all of them — also knew what would happen. Wonder who’s paying the lawyers in all of this.
Taxpayers are paying for half the lawyers.
And, I think that if this is framed as a “civil rights” suit, then the plaintiffs lawyers automatically get paid out of some DOJ pot of money set aside to fund civil rights cases.
So, we are probably paying all the lawyers.
And, if there are “damages” found, then the taxpayers will be on the hook for that bill too.
Ain’t lawfare great- both foreign and domestic?
Why are there so many gays in the military anyway?
Um… Don’t ask.
Before it’s all done, Gaius Obama Caesar will have battalions of Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen in tutus, dancing just like the Caligula movie had it. So when do we have horses installed in the Senate? Like Obama’s philosophical ancestor did?
Another question: When do we also eliminate the DADT for fornicators and adulterers? Ain’t they still proscribed in the UCMJ? This too “otter” become a “civil right.” And fraternizing amongst the ranks!! True love and that, y’know?
I don’t know how we will ever get the genie back in the bottle. But nothing good will come of this.
Well, Jim, this is the classic “tail wagging the dog” if ever there was one. Best definitive scientific/academic estimate I’ve seen is that homosexuals of all stripes constitute 1.7% of the population. And we torque the entire force structure of the armed services out of shape to cater to this crowd? It would be perhaps understandable and/or worth it if somehow the inclusion of these people magically boosted the combat capability of the force by some fabulous per-centage, thereby justifying the morale and ethical and moral problems their open inclusion automatically bring in their train, but of course just the opposite is true. A classic example of the power of small groups of people using ideology and propaganda to shape society. Are you aware that a recent survey found that a majority of those under the age of 30 believe homosexuals to constitute TWENTY-FIVE PER-CENT! (25!) of the ENTIRE US population? This is what happens when Hollywood and TV, etc., drench a society in a 24/7/365 drumbeat pushing the homosexual agenda as “normal” for both the individual and society and the seizure of the teaching process by the left and the indoctrination/brainwashing of our youth in schools on the desirability/normality of the homosexual life-style under the guise of “tolerance” and “anti-bullying” required curricula.
VX, we agree on this. More marching through the institutions and all that.
Radical and chilling thought. If homosexuality is biologically set, as we are told, then there is a marker in the genes to be discovered. It is probably not DNA making proteins, as these are fairly few in number compared with the rest of the DNA used for control. If it’s a regulatory part of the DNA that affects brain development, then the marker can be found.
Research and find that marker. Fund a prenatal test if “drench a society in a 24/7/365 drumbeat pushing the homosexual agenda as “normal” for both the individual and society” is too much for our society. Us or them. Let each parent make a choice.
I don’t like this idea for several reasons. I’d be simpler to just defeat the minority that want a Left America in elections. Then we can start removing judges that don’t swim in their own lane, restore military service and larger society to a meritocracy of deeds, and get back to Rule of Law, strong property rights, and individual rights, not group rights.
Over the years a big hulabaloo was raised when some quack researcher claimed to find the “Queer Gene.” Every time they quietly went away when it was shown they had nothing.
There is no evidence that homosexuality is biological. It’s a mental illness that *may* be caused in some cases by brain damage, but those are so few as to be less than a rounding error. It’s been known for a number of years the faulty gender identification is a mental illness. My understanding is that it has been returned to the shrink’s manual as well under a new name.
Not everything in the phenotype is coded in the genotype. Just because something isn’t genetic doesn’t mean it isn’t biological. Indeed, given the biological complexity involved in high level behaviors such as aesthetics or sexual attraction I’d be pretty well floored if there was a genetic link that could be detected by our present level of understanding.
What you’re remembering are either researchers looking to grab headlines and funding or (more likely) a science journalist completely misunderstanding someone’s research. A bit like the recent hullabaloo over FTL neutrinos.
Back when, the homo activists claimed that it was a choice, or result of inadvertent training, or something. Lately the exact same people are claiming it’s genetic.
I’ll admit that your genes or upbringing might give you a _tendency_, but it is still up to you whether you act on it or not. I mean, most guys have a tendency to be horny about gals, but we mostly seem to to be able to control ourselves, at least those of us who are older than twenty.
This, in my opinion, is why BHO and Holder came out months prior to the DADT repeal saying that they will no longer enforce the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Nothing in the beltway happens in a vacuum.
No doubt in my simple little mind that this was orchestrated long ago by the administration as a payback to the Gay activist community. I think the DADT was just the vehicle to move the agenda forward with little opposition. Does anyone honestly believe the the military opinion was even a legitimate concern by this administration or the left?
Why OF COURSE I believe it was a legitimate concern–just like I believe in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, ghosts, witches, were-wolves, goblins, virgins, and other fictitious creatures..
We could also go the other way of not giving a flying rats arse, so long as you’re good at your job….
Actually, I could go with that, but as I have admitted here and elsewhere, I am somewhat strange.
Mission First, Last, and Always, Baby! To hell with that silly fraught saponically-operatic social stuff!