DADT CLOTURE VOTE AT 2:30 p.m. ET NOW (DADT Open Thread)

(Cross-posted from LGBTPOV)

UPDATED at 2:25 PT: MSNBC just corrected itself to say the vote will be at 2:30 ET again. But that may change, of course. Stay tuned. — Eden

by Karen Ocamb

This is it. (Updated) Senators just adjourned after debating on whether to proceed to debate on the National Defense Authorization Act which contains language to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. You can watch on C-SPAN2. Bottom line: Democratic Sen. Carl Levin wants to break the filibuster through the cloture vote coming up at UPDATE 3:30ET, 12:30 Pacific to get to full and open debate on the bill, including the introduction of amendments, as Majority Leader Harry Reid promised last week when he limited debate to only three amendments – as I previously posted in the overview. But, he says, “we need to get to the bill in order to debate” the many expected amendments.

Republican Sen. John McCain says no vote should be taken on repealing DADT until after the Pentagon’s survey on how the troops and their families feel about the repeal is completed on Dec. 1. He says voting on it now is “jamming” it through before the Nov. 2 election so President Obama can keep his promise to the gay lobby. McCain stressed how the four joint chiefs of staff oppose changing the legislation until after the survey is complete. McCain is stunned that only the President, Secretary of Defense Gates and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen – and not the four joint chiefs – are allowed to “certify” the results of the survey before any repeal is possible.

In response to McCain, Levin quoted from Mullen’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee where he said that repealing DADT was “the right thing to do.” Mullen is the BOSS of the joints chiefs – so who wins this vote may also impact his future, too. Gates has already announced he is leaving soon.

The Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson will be tweeting during the vote, @cjagenda. He also has an updated story of where the situation stands right now: “Doubts persist as today’s ‘Don’t Ask’ cloture vote approaches”

UPDATE: HERE’S A QUICK TAKE FROM SERVICEMEMBER LEGAL DEFENSE NETWORK’S TOM CARPENTER:

Here is where we are. The Republican moderates are angry with Senator Reid because he has limited their side to 3 amendments. They want to be able to offer as many as they want. Reid places the limitation so that he can manage the bill. To quote Lindsey Graham “Elections have consequences.” The conservative Republicans are arguing that we need to wait for the Pentagon report and voting on the NDAA shows disrespect for our troops. They also are arguing that Reid has added an irrelevant amendment with the Dream Act. This happens all the time in the Senate and even McCain has done the same thing in the past. For instance, he added campaign finance, to a NDAA many years ago. Just a smoke screen. Both DADT and the Dream Act are relevant. The Dream Act allows for a path to citizenship by serving in the military.

Not sure where the count is at this time. Looks like Snowe, Collins and Brown will not vote for cloture.

Here’s SLDN’s list of the Senators who may still be moved before the vote, followed by an excerpt from Mullen’s testimony.

UPDATED LIST: KEY SENATORS UNCOMMITTED ON BREAKING THE FILIBUSTER:

–George Lemieux (R-FL);

–Susan Collins (R-ME);

–Olympia Snowe (R-ME);

–Mark Pryor (D-Ark.);

–Richard Lugar (R-IN);

–Judd Gregg (R-NH);

–Jim Webb (D-VA);

–George Voinovich (R-OH);

–Kit Bond (R-MO);

TAKE ACTION NOW: http://bit.ly/bdYE3Z

Call both your senators at the Capitol switchboard right now and urge them to vote to end the filibuster and move on to a real debate on the Defense bill. No spin. No more delays. This should be a bipartisan vote. (202) 224-3121

UPDATE BY EDEN: Please use this as an open thread to discuss the vote as it happens.

The latest on DADT: Trial briefs submitted today; SU targets Senators to call

(Cross-posted at LGBTPOV)

By Karen Ocamb

Servicemembers United is lobbying Congress all day Thursday to legislatively repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – a move stalled by concern the repeal didn’t get caught up in the far right-wing swing of the Republican primary. However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Lady Gaga (and the rest of us) that next week he’s bringing the Defense Appropriations Bill and the DADT repeal to a vote in the Senate.

Meanwhile, in the other major development on the DADT front – District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips, who ruled on Sept. 9 that the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is unconstitutional, gave both sides a deadline of between Thursday and next Thursday, Sept. 23 to submit briefs on the permanent injunction against enforcing DADT.

Dan Woods, (pictured) the straight Republican the lawyer in the Log Cabin case, told me:

“As per the judge’s order, we plan to submit (Thursday in the early afternoon) a proposed permanent injunction that would prevent any further application of DADT. The government then has a week to object to our proposal. The judge would then be expected to sign either our proposed injunction or a modified version of what we submit.

Our proposed injunction would cover all military installations, wherever located. We expect the government to object to this and try to limit it to California but feel we are on solid ground.

Once the judge signs the injunction, the government is free to appeal. I have no idea whether it will. If it does, it will also move for an order staying the injunction pending the appeal. We will vigorously oppose any such motion.”

UPDATE BY EDEN: Karen posted this a few days ago, but it couldn’t be more timely:

Back in the beltway, the Washington Blade broke the news that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is bringing the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’’t Tell to a vote next week as part of the Defense Appropriations bill. The Advocate looked at where the vote stands.

A senior Democratic aide told Kerry Eleveld that “they expected Republicans would filibuster the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act, which provides funding for the Defense Department, and 60 votes would be needed to end debate on the bill and bring it to the Senate floor for a vote. GOP Senator John McCain of Arizona renewed his filibuster threat last week.” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported during a segment on DADT, however, that McCain may now be “softening” his stance now that this Republican primary is over.

Jarrod Chlapowski of Servicemembers United (pictured here with his partner Alex Nicholson, SU executive director) says SU is holding an in-person lobby day on Thursday. And a Facebook message asks people outside of Washington DC to call Senators between 8:00am and 5:00pm EST. Jarrod asks that calls be made all week. Here’s the message and list -– note the number of Democrats:

***This is a CALL TO ACTION: Pick up your phone and get ready to call Congress!***

Sources say Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is going to be bringing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal up for a vote next week. We need to make sure we have the votes we need to end this viciously discriminatory policy once and for all!

Please call one or more (or all!) of the following senators – identified by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network as key senators for this vote – and urge them to support repeal! Even if you do not live in any of these states, DADT is a national issue and we need to make sure the Senate votes our way.

Harry Reid (D-NV): 202-224-3542
Mitch McConnell (R-KY): 202-224-2541
John McCain (R-AZ): 202-224-2541
Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.): 202-224-4843
Mark Pryor (D-Ark.): 202-224-2353
Richard Lugar (R-Ind.): 202-224-4814
Jon Tester (D-Mont.): 202-224-2644
Max Baucus (D-Mont.): 202-224-2651
Judd Gregg (R-N.H.): 202-224-3324
Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.): 202-224-2551
Kent Conrad (D-N.D.): 202-224-2043
George Voinovich (R-Ohio): 202-224-3353
Tim Johnson (D-S.D.): 202-224-5842
Mark Warner (D-Va.): 202-224-2023

UPDATE BY EDEN: Rachel Maddow interviews Vice President Joe Biden on DADT:

Part 1: Setup for interview, including Rachel on Gaga/Reid:

Part 2: Interview. Sorry, no YouTube embed yet but here’s a h/t to Richard A. Walter for the MSNBC link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/#39204458

UPDATE BY EDEN: Need some inspiration to call your Senator? Watch this YouTube video posted last year of soldiers dancing to Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface” — and imagine the joy the repeal of DADT will bring to gay and lesbian servicemembers around the world:

Gaga, Reid, DADT converge at the intersection of pop and politics

By Eden James

If you haven’t been following this week’s developments on the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, then you’ve probably been hiding in a cave.

After all, it’s in the bloodstream of not just the cable news channels but the entertainment shows as well, after Lady Gaga made it her mission to highlight DADT at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday night and turn over the front page of her web site to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

As Yahoo reported:

“After the show aired, web searches soared on everything from “lady gaga guests” to “what does SLDN stand for”.

Then, after Gaga went on Ellen, it hit the Twitterverse and the news cycle extended again. Check out this Las Vegas TV news blow-by-blow of the tweeting lovefest between Lady Gaga and Senator Harry Reid, who promised to bring DADT to the floor for a vote next week, as a part of the larger Defense Authorization bill:

Perez Hilton then jumped on the Gaga bandwagon.

Just this morning, Lauren and Ellie, two female students from Colorado posted this YouTube video showing how they got all the guys in their dorm to call their Senator to ask him to vote for repeal. They showed, in a very adorable way, how easy it was for other students to make their voice heard, filling up the voicemail box of Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet — and inspiring other students across the country to do the same. All set to the sounds of Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro”:

And that’s just the tip of a very large iceberg of activism inspired by Lady Gaga’s move on Sunday. A great deal of credit goes to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which courageously decided to amp up the pressure on the Senate by moving out of the comfortable cul de sac of political activists and into the realm of pop culture. (Of course, it goes without saying that if it wasn’t for the hard work done for years by SLDN, Servicemembers United, Knights Out, the Palm Center and so many other organizations, institutions, and individuals — the list is endless — dedicated to the repeal of DADT this “tipping point” moment would not have been possible).

What we are witnessing is the accelerating convergence of pop culture and politics and a recognition by people as powerful as Sen. Reid that it can’t be ignored – and should be embraced. We saw a similar dynamic in 2008 after will.i.am produced the “Yes, We Can” video following Barack Obama’s defeat in the New Hampshire primary:

As Democrats have settled into power over the last two years, it seems like politicians have been cautious to avoid these kinds of convergences for fear of losing control of the message — at just the time when they had the ear of millions of people (voters) who don’t normally pay attention to politics.

If organizations and political leaders want to know how to change the political game board in the coming months, they would be wise to follow the inspired leadership of SLDN, Lady Gaga and Sen. Harry Reid.

What happened this week is a reminder of what is possible. And what happens next week will go a long way towards defining the political and cultural landscape that will shape not just the potential repeal of DADT but the environment in which the Prop 8 case is decided, especially if it reaches the Supreme Court.

UPDATE: And the new media feedback loop continues, as Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet just posted this YouTube video in response to Lauren and Ellie’s video above:

UPDATE: The “Gaga-inspired-student-calls-their-Senator” trend is picking up on YouTube. Check out this student calling Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown — and finding out that Brown is against the repeal of DADT… until the Pentagon issues its report in December:

Inspired? Call the Capitol Switchboard right now to talk with your Senator ASAP. As the video above shows, it just takes a minute of your time:

(202) 224-3121

DADT: Sen. Harry Reid announces Senate will vote on defense bill, including DADT repeal, next week

By Eden James

Various sources have been breaking this news today, including the Washington Blade which was the leader of the pack:

The Washington Blade has learned that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) intends to schedule a vote next week on major defense budget legislation that contains “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal language, regardless of any objection from members of the U.S. Senate.

A senior Democratic leadership aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Reid met with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday to inform the Republican leader that the fiscal year 2011 defense authorization bill will come to the Senate floor the week of Sept. 20.

Of course, Sen. John McCain might have something to say about it, having threatened to filibuster the defense budget bill a few moths ago if it included DADT repeal.

Despite McCain’s threat, Sen. Reid is pushing ahead and apparently willing to make it a campaign issue in his home state of Nevada. Here’s the text of an email he apparently sent to his campaign list:

Senator Reid has reiterated his commitment to repealing the military’s ban on gays serving in our armed forces. This afternoon, he informed Republicans that he intends to bring the Defense Authorization Bill–including a repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy–to the Senate Floor next week.

This would overturn the decade-old policy that bars openly gay, lesbian or bisexual Americans from serving in our armed forces, and is an important step towards equal treatment of all Americans.

Senator Reid believes that Americans should not be denied the opportunity to serve their country just because of their sexual orientation. Please visit our website for more information. Voice your support for repealing DADT by signing up online to support Harry Reid.

Megan Jones
Friends for Harry Reid

Alex Nicholson from Servicemembers United had this to say:

“We are both pleased and relieved that Senator Reid has decided to schedule the defense authorization bill for floor time next week,” said Alexander Nicholson, founder and Executive Director of Servicemembers United.

“We are fairly confident that we will have the 60 votes to break a filibuster of this bill. It would be shameful for lawmakers to vote to hold up an important and expansive piece of legislation like the defense authorization bill simply because of their opposition to one or two provisions within it,” Nicholson said.

Here are some more links to the coverage of this from CNN, New York Times and ABC News.

UPDATE: Kerry Eleveld does a preliminary whip count on votes for The Advocate:

Although some Democratic senators such as Jim Webb of Virginia might break with their party and support the filibuster, other Republican senators could help compensate for the deficit.

Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana has already indicated he would not support a filibuster; Senator Susan Collins of Maine voted for the repeal measure in the Senate Armed Services Committee and is a good candidate to also break with her party. Other GOP Senators who might vote to break the filibuster include senators Olympia Snowe of Maine and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.

Nicholson noted that no Democratic senator has given a strong indication to date that they would join a Republican filibuster.

Lady Gaga brings Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to MTV Video Music Awards

(Cross-posted to LGBTPOV)

By Karen Ocamb

Superstar Lady Gaga won eight awards at the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night. But for many LGBT fans, her greatest win was following through on her promise to make LGBT equality one of the priority fights of her life and career. She transformed her website into an action page to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and appeared on the red carpet with service members impacted by DADT – former U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. David Hall, former Air Force Major Mike Almy, and former U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Stacy Vasquez, who were discharged under the policy, and former West Point cadet Katie Miller, who resigned last month in protest of the policy.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network Executive Director Aubrey Sarvis told the Washington Post that Gaga’s move “casts a spotlight on the unjust burden that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ imposes upon the brave men and women who defend our country every day, and further underscores why the Senate must swiftly act to get rid of this despicable law for good.”

Gaga also announced her own arrival (seen here in a photo by Terry Richardson) on Twitter: “Silks, fabrics, shoes + jewels, fashion dreams + breaking rules. Real heroes on my arm, tonight, is for us monsters, and our fight. X.”

This from SLDN: A U.S. Soldier in Balad, Iraq watches Lady Gaga on MTV, calls the Senate switchboard, and writes a thank you note: www.SLDN.org/Gaga – “Thank you Lady Gaga! I called my Senators from Iraq…it took all of three minutes (one minute was dedicated to all the numbers I had to push on the telephone). Let’s keep the pressure up!”

This week is critical to move on the bill to repeal DADT, which is in the Defense Appropriations bill.

Here’s a reminder of Lady Gaga’s commitment, her speech at the Oct. 11, 2009 National Equality March in Washington. Her scream to President Obama is something many others are screaming now.

UPDATE BY EDEN: Lady Gaga continued her advocacy on DADT on today’s season premiere of the Ellen DeGeneres show, taped directly after her win at the VMAs. She asked viewers to call Sen. Harry Reid to tell him to schedule a vote on DADT and the Defense Authorization Bill.

The Courage Campaign also has a petition letter from Lt. Dan Choi to Sen. Harry Reid that you can sign here.

The “Witt Standard”: Former Major Margaret Witt’s DADT trial resumes Monday

(Cross-posted at LGBTPOV)

By Karen Ocamb

Former Air Force Major Margaret Witt made national headlines recently when Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan discussed the significance of the “Witt Standard” during her confirmation hearings. The “Witt Standard” was also peppered throughout Judge Virginia Phillips’ decision Thursday declaring Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell unconstitutional in the federal lawsuit brought by the Log Cabin Republicans.

On Monday, Sept. 13, the lesbian for whom the “Witt Standard” was named will be back in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Washington court as the decorated U.S. Air Force flight nurse continues to challenge her discharge under DADT. Witt is seeking re-instatement. The trial is expected to last seven days.

Scheduled to testify on Thursday is DADT expert Nathaniel Frank, author of “Unfriendly Fire: How the Gay Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America.” Frank was also an expert witness in the Log Cabin Republican’s case before Judge Phillips. In an email to me Thursday night, Frank said this about Phillip’s ruling:

“This judge looked at an enormous amount of factual evidence about this case–over 400 pages of carefully documented data presented by the LCR lawyers, White & Case. And she found that, as many have been saying for years, the policy serves no legitimate governmental purpose, and in fact it is harmful to the military and our troops. This is the most powerful statement yet that DADT is unconstitutional, as well as bad law, and that our country has moved well beyond it.”

White House spokesperson Shin Inouye told LGBT POV:

“The Justice Department is studying the [Phillips] decision, including the question of its scope and immediate effect and we expect them to announce their next steps after that review is completed. The President remains committed to legislative repeal of DADT, and he will continue to work with lawmakers to achieve that goal this fall. And he will continue to work closely with Secretary Gates, Admiral Mullen, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff on an ongoing study of how to best implement the repeal.”

The Witt case goes back to trial just as the Senate goes back to work – and presumably takes up the Defense Authorization Bill with DADT repeal legislation included. Hopefully the Witt and LCR cases will add momentum to what appears to be inevitable and not cost taxpayers any more in the Justice Department racking up unnecessary court costs.

Here’s a 2008 interview with Witt by station KXLY:

Witt is being represented by the ACLU of Washington. In a press release about the landmark case, they synopsized what is meant by the “Witt Standard” – the military must prove that the discharged person hurts morale and unit cohesion:

“In 2008 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Air Force must prove that discharging Major Witt is necessary for purposes of military readiness. While the ruling left in place the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the court found that before discharging a soldier, the military must prove that the individual’s conduct actually hurt morale and unit cohesion. The case was remanded to federal district court for trial to consider the case under the appellate court’s standard of review.”

Here’s the ACLU of Washington’s press release:

“I want to serve my country. I have loved being in the military – my fellow airmen have been my family. I am proud of my career and want to continue doing my job,” said Major Witt. “Wounded people never asked me about my sexual orientation. They were just glad to see me there,” she added.

A 1986 graduate of Pacific Lutheran University, Major Margaret Witt is a flight nurse assigned to McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma. During her 19-year career in the Air Force, Major Witt has served in the Persian Gulf, has received many medals and commendations, and has always had superb evaluations from her superiors. In 1993, she was selected to be the “poster child” for the Air Force Nurse Corps recruitment flyer.

Major Witt served in Oman during Operation Enduring Freedom and received a medal from President Bush, who noted that she had delivered “outstanding medical care” to injured service members and that her “outstanding aerial accomplishments … reflect great credit upon herself and the United States Air Force.” In 2003, Major Witt received another medal for saving the life of a Defense Department employee who collapsed aboard a government chartered flight from Bahrain.

From 1997 to 2003, Major Witt was in a committed relationship with another woman, a civilian. In the summer of 2004, Major Witt was notified that the Air Force had begun an investigation into an allegation that she had engaged in homosexual conduct. In November 2004, Major Witt was placed on unpaid leave and told she could no longer participate in any military duties, pending formal separation proceedings. In March 2006, the Air Force informed Major Witt that she was being administratively discharged on grounds of homosexual conduct.

The lawsuit seeks to reverse the Air Force decision to discharge Major Witt. In its 2008 ruling, the Court of Appeals emphasized that generalized or hypothetical assertions about the impact of gay and lesbian service members would not be sufficient. The trial court “must determine not whether [the policy requiring discharge of gay and lesbian service members] has some hypothetical, post hoc rationalization in general, but whether a justification exists for the application of the policy as applied to Major Witt.”

The military has provided no evidence that her sexual orientation or conduct has caused a problem in the performance of her military duties. To the contrary, the ACLU has submitted declarations from military colleagues testifying that her forced absence is harmful to her unit’s morale.

Representing Major Witt are ACLU-WA Legal Director Sarah Dunne and Sher Kung, a Perkins Coie Fellow, and ACLU-WA cooperating attorneys James Lobsenz of Carney Badley Spellman and Aaron Caplan of Loyola Law School. In a previous ACLU case, Lobsenz represented Army Sgt. Perry Watkins, who challenged his dismissal from the military for being gay. In 1989, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that, as a matter of fairness, the Army could not discharge Watkins.

RELATED LINKS

• Read the ACLU’s Trial Brief
• Daily Kos: The “Witt Standard” and Pending DADT Cases
• Read the ACLU’s Motion for Summary Judgment

Rachel Maddow: Lack of DADT questions at Obama press conference “weird”… But why?

By Eden James

On Friday, Rachel Maddow — one of the foremost opinion leaders on DADT since her program launched in 2008 — talked about the historic DADT decision by Judge Virginia Phillips on Thursday night and interviewed Major Michael Almy.

The 9-minute segment is well worth watching (h/t to ĶĭŗîļĺęΧҲΪ for posting in last night’s comment thread):

At one point, Rachel talks about how “weird” it was that no reporters asked President Obama about the DADT decision at Friday’s press conference. It was indeed strange that on the morning after this historic decision, not one reporter chose to ask the President about it.

At White House press conferences, President Obama calls on reporters to ask questions. In some cases, he is aware that a reporter covering a particular “beat” — for example, the Middle East — is likely to ask a question about that particular beat. By calling on reporters, the President (Obama, Bush, Clinton, etc) can, to an extent, control the content of many questions.

That said, there were reporters from The Advocate (Kerry Eleveld) and Metro Weekly (Chris Geidner) — both publications that cover the LGBT community — present at the press conference. Geidner wrote about “The Presidential News Conference, And What I Didn’t Ask” on Friday:

“Although it was exciting to consider the possibility that I might ask President Obama a question at today’s news conference in the East Room of the White House, it apparently was more important to allow Fox News to ask the president about the “Ground Zero mosque” and the would-be-Koran burner than it was to allow an LGBT media outlet (or anyone else, for that matter) to ask about last night’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” ruling.”

While Obama may not be familiar with Eleveld and Geidner, who write for less “prestigious” publications than the more familiar mainstream media outlets, the President is briefed ahead of time by Robert Gibbs and his press operation on which reporters to call on at these press conferences. And though Gibbs knows both Eleveld and Geidner, having called on them at several White House press conferences, I’m guessing Gibbs didn’t make a point of recommending that Obama call on them.

Still, the blame is shared by the “multi-issue” beltway reporters from traditional media outlets that are ostensibly responsible for addressing the most important issues of the day. And they failed to ask Obama a single question about one of the hottest topics in the news, on the day after this historic decision.

Perhaps it was because, until Friday, the DADT case had never been very prominent in the news, as Judge Virginia Phillips talked about in a New York Times profile piece yesterday:

“Honestly, I did not expect it to get as much attention as it did,” Judge Phillips said. “During the course of the case, there wasn’t a lot of attention paid to it.”

Indeed, the case did not receive much tradmed or new media coverage until the ruling came down, even from Rachel Maddow or in this forum (which is primarily focused on the Prop 8 trial and the right-wing organizations that made the passage of Prop 8 possible). In fact, aside from reporter (and Prop 8 Trial Tracker contributor) Karen Ocamb’s excellent coverage of the DADT trial on LGBTPOV, it seemed like the case was barely mentioned in the blogosphere either.

Karen wrote about the lack of attention on this case back on July 19:

Most of the LGBT leadership and equality activists yawned when LCR’s federal challenge to DADT commenced Tuesday, despite hours of testimony from DADT expert Nathaniel Frank and obnoxious objections from the Justice Department lawyers.

I drove up from West Hollywood for Tuesday’s opening arguments and was startled at how few non-attorneys showed up. After all, this is essentially the military equivalent of the federal Prop 8 trial – evidence in a court of law about how gays are officially treated as second class citizens by the federal government. But for all the high decibel attention over repealing DADT and the Pentagon’s homophobic survey – no one showed up with picket signs to demonstrate outside or packed the courtroom to support the plaintiffs in this serious David versus Goliath legal battle. What does this thundering absence tell the government about how much LGBTs really care about this horrendous law?

Was driving to hot Riverside just too inconvenient? Does the fact that the plaintiffs are gay Republicans play a role in LGBT and civil rights groups ignoring the case? Would there be a similar deafening silence if the plaintiff was photogenic Lt. Dan Choi or some fire-breathing progressive who wanted to stick it to President Obama, the Pentagon or the Department of Justice?

What does it say about the real principles of the LGBT movement for equality that no one but three local LGBT activists, a couple of Log Cabin members from Palm Springs and a handful of reporters showed up for part one of this trial?

For much, much more, read the rest of Karen’s post.

As a former reporter, here’s my take on why this case hasn’t received much coverage in the media:

The center of gravity in the repeal of DADT has resided in Washington, D.C. for years, as political pressure to overturn the policy has increased outside and inside the Beltway, driven by advocacy organizations as well as policy leaders. Unlike the Prop 8 case, in which the “action” was taking place in California, the “action” on DADT has been reverberating around Washington for years, from the White House and Congress to the Pentagon and inside the D.C. punditocracy. With the repeal of DADT seeming like a foregone conclusion to many traditional media reporters (who are fewer and farther between these days, due to the decline of the newspaper industry), this case failed to make it onto the radar of most “gatekeeper” editors and producers tasked with determining the day’s news. Without much news coverage emanating from the Riverside courtroom, many bloggers who rely on news accounts as the foundation of their content and analysis, took the tradmed’s cue and ignored the trial as well. And the negative feedback loop continued, as reporters, who rely on bloggers for news tips quite often, noticed the lack of coverage in the blogosphere as well.

There’s so much more to it than that, of course. But that’s my take, in a nutshell.

What’s yours? In the comments, tell us why you think there has been a lack of attention to the DADT case (until the ruling was announced)?

Hi Louis! “One Man, One Woman” stance on DADT exposes NOM’s duplicity and hypocrisy

(Cross-posted at Good As You)

By Jeremy Hooper

You know how we’ve told you a million times about that “One Man, One Woman” offshoot organization? The one run by National Organization For Marriage tour personality Louis Marinelli? The same OMOW group whose Facebook page NOM now claims as their own official site on both their own Twitter feed and their spinoff TwoMillionForMarriage.com site?

Yea, well check this out: In a surprising move, someone writing for OMOW (presumably Louis) has come out in favor of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal:

Also, presumably-Louis has even joined this site, Towleroad, and Americablog in asking the DOJ to not appeal the recent court decision:

Uhm, okay. So now just to remind you: This Twitter account (which was once called NOMUpdates) is the same Twitter account that, over the past year, has tweeted all kinds of targeted hits not just against marriage equality, but also against gays in general. There was the time that Louis, or whoever was writing for the account, declared all gays to be single. There was the time that the Twitter-er said that Peter LaBarbera and his fringe “Americans For Truth” group merely “tell the truth about homosexuality.” There were times when he or she flat-out called us an abomination, citing Leviticus. There was this one: “Deviance” describes actions or behaviours that violate cultural norms – homosexuality is far from a cultural norm. Therefore, it is deviant.” And this: “Homosexuality and gay marriage are wrong and harmful to society.” And this: “#iaintafraidtosay that there shouldn’t be any recognition of homosexual relationships because that is saying that homosexuality is OK.” There was this next one, accompanied by a smile: “What they do is blantantly [sic] immoral. :)” There were times when Mr. Marinelli or his ally compared our unions to that which might exist between a sterile brother and sister. And other times when our very character was assaulted, like this one: “#nevertrust activists of the homosexual agenda – they are deceitful people who care only about themselves and not what’s best for society.” And so on and so on.

Plus, as we’ve seen time and time again, the OMOW Facebook page (which, again, NOM claims as their own in multiple places) hosts some of the most incendiary, blanketed comments on the ‘net. Comments that often go well beyond marriage and right into gays’ mental health.

So to have this site now coming out in favor of repeal? It’s kind of — something. Sure, it might be a naked attempt to say, “See we don’t really hate gays — we support their right to fight and possibly die on the battlefield.” But regardless of motivation, it’s certainly not a position that will sit well with the vast majority of organized anti-equality activists, as most of the socially conservative personalities and groups see the LGBT community’s every gain as an interconnected step down a slippery slope. So if OMOW is sincere, then we celebrate the dual takeaway: (1) The further evidence that even some “pro-family” peeps are coming around on basic rights, and (2) the further dissension that this support for basic rights will cause among those whose anti-gay “culture war” is an all-out “us v. them” battle rather than a series of tiered skirmishes with varying shades of nuance.

***

**True to form, OMOW is making yet another attempt to distance from NOM:

But here’s the deal: It is 100% impossible for an organization to embed a Facebook page…

(NOM’s TwoMillion For Marriage site, with “OMOW” Facebook embedded within)

…and for that same organization to list that same Facebook page on their branded Twitter account…

(NOM’s official Twitter sidebar, with “OMOW” listed as official Facebook)

…and still claim separation. IT. DOES. NOT. WORK. THAT. WAY.

CNN’s Soledad O’Brien talks DADT with soldiers both current and former

By Julia Rosen

This segment on CNN with Soledad O’Brien speaking with current gay soldiers in the closet, those who have been kicked out and SLDN’s Aubrey Sarvis is well worth a watch.

Transcript from Pam’s House Blend:

SOLEDAD O’BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You may not be able to see it, but this man is nervous. He has every reason to be. He is one of an estimated 60,000 members of the U.S. military serving in the closet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wondering if this is the day that my secret is going to fly out. Is this the day.

O’BRIEN: You live like that? Everyday?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, whenever you get the e-mail to come to the office by your boss or somebody is on the phone, and who is on the phone? I don’t know. You never know, is this that phone call.

O’BRIEN: The phone call that will kick you out of the military?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

O’BRIEN: He is a 10-plus year veteran are army intelligence and currently serving overseas. He can’t reveal his identity because of the military policy “don’t ask, don’t tell,” but that is about to change.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R): The committee’s focus is today on the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

O’BRIEN: The service members’ legal defense network has been lobbying Congress to pass the Pentagon’s military spending bill. It has an amendment that would repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.” You think you have it?

AUBREY SARVIS, SERVICE MEMBERS’ LEGAL DEFENSE NETWORK: This bill will be close. We won the voting committee. We are going to win the vote on the Senate floor. Senator McCain has threatened to filibuster, and so we may have to come up with 60 votes. If we have to we will.

O’BRIEN: But some say that the military is not ready for openly gay service members. For former air force Major Mike Almy, the upcoming vote comes late. How did you find out that you had been caught?

MIKE ALMY, FORMER AIR FORCE MAJOR: My commander called me into his office for a routine meeting which was not out of the order and the first thing he did was to read me the DOD policy on homosexuality, just like and I’m sure I turned ghost white, because I was completely flabbergasted and as if somebody had pulled the rug out from under me.

O’BRIEN: Five years ago, a co-worker found his e-mails to a man he was dating. Almy was booted from the air force.

ALMY: I’m pissed off. I really am. I want my job back. I want my career back.

O’BRIEN: Can you get it back realistically?

ALMY: There have been about 14,000 men and women who have been thrown out under “don’t ask, don’t tell.” So you’ve got to figure there’s maybe two or 3,000 of those who want to come back in. How do you revive a career that’s been completely derailed like mine where I’ve been out for four years now?

O’BRIEN: The repeal won’t automatically lift the ban, and the services could take months to implement the policy. There is no guarantee that ousted members like Almy could return. As it moves forward what advice would you give the members of the military who are closeted? What do you tell them? Wait?

SARVIS: Well, they have to keep in mind that this law has not gone away and serve in silence until you get the green light.

O’BRIEN: When the time comes, breaking that silence will not come easily. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it is repealed soon, and I decide to come out, I think it will be some pushback from the colleagues.

O’BRIEN: Pushback in what way?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pushback and major penalties from the co- workers.

O’BRIEN: You will lose friends?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I will probably lose some friends.

O’BRIEN: Make it worth it, still?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, because I am me. I am who I am.

O’BRIEN: For CNN in America, I’m Soledad O’Brien, Washington, D.C.

If you get a chance to watch it, vs. reading the transcript, do. It is always incredibly powerful watching someone who is serving silence speaking about how physiologically difficult it is to hide who you are on a daily basis and fear you are going to lose your career.

This is the type of clip that is so useful in changing the minds of Americans, as they hear from themselves the stories told by LGBTs about the impact of current laws and policies on their lives.

DADT a done deal

By Julia Rosen

What a week for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell on the Hill. Just when many people started to believe that it was increasingly unlikely that DADT would be repealed this year in Congress, a compromise emerged.

Here’s where we stand now. On Thursday, the Senate Armed Services Committee added the repeal language to the defense authorization bill with a 16-12 vote behind closed doors. Later the full House voted 229-186 to add the identical repeal language to their version of the defense bill. The entire House voted on Friday to pass the defense bill. Now all we need is the full Senate to approve their defense bill, then it goes to reconciliation (where the bills get merged) and on to President Obama’s desk for a signature.

While the chiefs of the branches of the military are sending letters saying this is not a done deal, it is and here is why. The heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines do not set the policy of which sexual orientations are allowed to serve in the military. This language in the defense bill gives that to the Defense Secretary (Gates), the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Mullen) and the Commander in Chief (Obama). Gates/Mullen are working on a report on how (not if) to implement repeal. The military is getting input from service members for that report. More from Aravosis:

The train has left the station, and the cat is out of the bag. It’s over. McHugh and Casey lost, fair and square. The President, their boss, said what he wanted to do, Congress put its stamp on the proposal, and is in the process of enacting it into law. With all due respect to McHugh and Casey, it is now irrelevant that they think the repeal of DADT is not a done deal. The commander in chief and Congress have now spoken. Game over. They lost. They don’t get to revisit the issue, like some Argentine junta, simply because they disagree with the democratic outcome.

As the media made clear last week, everyone thinks that Congress voted to repeal DADT last week. And everyone in Congress thinks they did the same. That’s why people like Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) refused to endorse the compromise – because he thought the compromise would make DADT repeal a “done deal.” That’s why all of the joint chiefs wrote to McCain to stop the legislation from being passed last week – and it’s why two of the chiefs thought that the legislation outright repealed DADT. Because they thought that the compromise was in effect repeal, and thus made repeal a done deal.

I’ll say it again. Regardless of whether you think the compromise will lead to full repeal next year, all of the actors in this drama – from the President, to the Democrats and even Republicans in Congress, to the joint chiefs – all believed that a vote for this legislation was a vote for full repeal. That the intent of our elected leaders, was full repeal. Period.

Aravosis also asked Speaker Pelosi today about the current dust up over what the chiefs of the military are saying about the language that just passed in Congress. Her response “This is over.”

This could still get screwed up. We don’t know what will be in the Gates/Mullen report, but what is important is that we project strength. That way when things go wrong we can organize an outcry and say that was not Congress’s intent. Congress repealed DADT and told Gates/Mullen to finish what they started, finding a way to implement the repeal in accordance with the wishes of the President of the United States. Change isn’t easy or quick and we must stay vigilant, if we are going to ensure that service members can serve openly and proudly.

And don’t forget that McCain is vowing to filibuster the full defense authorization bill in the Senate. That will be a major battle.