That’s pretty much over and done with. But I guess we still have Joe Solmonese’s 2017 to look forward to. I hope he enjoys his paycheck.

I wonder how Joe Solomese feels about reassuring us that by 2017 all will be golden for our people. That was before the mishandled health care debate, the needless insistence on bipartisanship, and the summer of discontent.

And now we will have to go back and wait for the Republicans to have 16 years in power, to see if they’ll screw up enough to give us a chance. Another opportunity squandered, another set of promises unmet.

For those who still have faith in Barack O, ask youself if he really is a ‘fierce advocate for gays and lesbians.’ His words. Not mine.

LGBT are fond of making a questionable and ahistorical comparisons to the experience of Blacks in America. Same sex marriage is one example; repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is another.

While there may be those who participated in both the civil rights as well as Gay rights movements who think the analogy a good one, I do not know of any such persons. I know that there cannot be too many.

That does not mean that LGBT do not deserve the same equal rights as much as any other group, it just means that comparisons are odious and that includes this one.

As a veteran of the civil rights and gay rights movements among others and given the general ignorance of LGBT when it comes to history in general, the law in particular and social justice movements in specific, I thought that a brief history lesson might be in order.

The truth is that President Truman was ambivalent about integration of the Army and politics played more of a role than morality in his ultimate decision to do so.

While politics has no doubt played a role in President Obama’s handling of the DADT issue, I think it is fair to say that he is more morally committed to repealing DADT than Truman was to desgregating the military.

Much like Obama with respect to DADT, Truman appointed a commission regarding desegregation. That commission recommended quick implementation for integration which Truman rejected and adopted instead a “go slow” approach which I am not defending.

Much like Obama allowing the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to undertake a year long study on how to implement the repeal of DADT, Truman allowed the military to work out the details and timetable for desegregation.

For the most part, Truman and his Secretary of War (Defense) Stuart Symington, yielded to the military.
It took 8 years to desegregate the military during the course of which segregated branches of the military and segregated units within the branches remained in place.

I have always advised against LGBT “putting all their eggs (or sperm) in one political (or sexual) basket.” However, LGBT would be wise to recognize that we do not have the political power of Blacks, the voting number of Hispanics or the economic influence of the Jews.

Our sitting out the election will almost certainly not determine its outcome. But it will affect our future.
Whether one chooses to endorse Democrats or Republicans,
failure to support either will leave us in an even more vulnerable position politically than we are already.

And that’s okay, so long as we understand the reality.

Here in Florida I can choose to vote for Charlie Crist for the Senate and hope that he doesn’t stab me in the back any worse than the Democrat party has with Joe S. as a cheerleader.

Check for choices but be honest is voting for someone that hates you a little less maybe anymore helpful?

If only the Pentagon had put as much “research” into going to Iraq and Afghanistan as they are putting into DADT.