Training? Even assuming there is REALLY a need to say litte more than: “ATTENTION: yesterday we banned out gays. Today we don’t. There will be Zero Tolerance for failure to coooperate. Paperwork to follow. Dismissed!” let’s revisit the Palm Center’s December study:

“Any claim that [implementation cannot happen] until after the completion of exhaustive training is inconsistent with DoD history and not based on military necessity. Whatever preparations are ultimately deemed necessary, the Pentagon ought to be able to pull them off faster than it did the implementation of DADT in 1994, which took approximately 40 days. [C]ase studies demonstrate that training can take place quickly, even in combat zones, and that policies are generally implemented BEFORE OR CONCURRENT WITH training. The Pentagon’s request for up to a year to train the troops prior to the repeal of DADT is unprecedented. Training is not a prerequisite…to claim otherwise is a vote of no confidence in members of the armed forces, is not supported empirically, and is suspiciously dilatory. Training, like the formal publication of instructions, can occur (and has occurred) ex post facto.”

And how sad is it that the person overseeing implementation, Secretary Stanley, is an African-American retired Major General who began his 33-year career in the Marines when the failure of the Pentagon to take racial equality seriously TWENTY YEARS after Truman ordered integration was exploding across military installations from Kentucky to Korea, with “race riots” on bases and ships, is insisting that existing regs and “chain of command” can adequately deal with discrimination against gays in assignments, evaluations, promotions, etc.—the same thing racists said back then.

The fact is that is that if the “various diversity programs, tracking initiatives, and complaint resolution processes under the Military Equal Opportunity Program” are still necessary in terms of “race, color, religion, sex, and national origin” then there is no logical excuse for not including “sexual orientation.” Their refusal only proves that while the Antigay Industry failed to stop the beginnings of the end of the ban itself, those seven antigay orgs the Pentagon Working Group met with are still pulling the Pentagon and White House’s chains.

Training? Even assuming there is REALLY a need to say litte more than: “ATTENTION: yesterday we banned out gays. Today we don’t. There will be Zero Tolerance for cooperation. Paperwork to follow. Dismissed!” let’s revisit the Palm Center’s December study:

“Any claim that [implementation cannot happen] until after the completion of exhaustive training is inconsistent with DoD history and not based on military necessity. Whatever preparations are ultimately deemed necessary, the Pentagon ought to be able to pull them off faster than it did the implementation of DADT in 1994, which took approximately 40 days. [C]ase studies demonstrate that training can take place quickly, even in combat zones, and that policies are generally implemented BEFORE OR CONCURRENT WITH training. The Pentagon’s request for up to a year to train the troops prior to the repeal of DADT is unprecedented. Training is not a prerequisite…to claim otherwise is a vote of no confidence in members of the armed forces, is not supported empirically, and is suspiciously dilatory. Training, like the formal publication of instructions, can occur (and has occurred) ex post facto.”

And how sad is it that the person overseeing implementation, Secretary Stanley, is an African-American retired Major General who began his 33-year career in the Marines when the failure of the Pentagon to take racial equality seriously TWENTY YEARS after Truman ordered integration was exploding across military installations from Kentucky to Korea, with “race riots” on bases and ships, is insisting that existing regs and “chain of command” can adequately deal with discrimination against gays in assignments, evaluations, promotions, etc.—the same thing racists said back then.

The fact is that is that if the “various diversity programs, tracking initiatives, and complaint resolution processes under the Military Equal Opportunity Program” are still necessary in terms of “race, color, religion, sex, and national origin” then there is no logical excuse for not including “sexual orientation.” Their refusal only proves that while the Antigay Industry failed to stop the beginnings of the end of the ban itself, those seven antigay orgs the Pentagon Working Group met with are still pulling the Pentagon and White House’s chains.