What Gives With "Don't Ask, Don't Tell?"

I have to admit, I am baffled.

There are 2 NATO nations that do not allow gays to openly serve. Turkey is one of them. Guess the other?

That's right, America is pretty much the last major Western nation to discriminate on gays in service. Currently, President Obama is allowing 2 servicepeople's lives to be ruined each day, as they get discharged.

It is an issue that affects America's security. In a vastly depleted military, we have booted an inordinately large number of Arabic translators and linguists for being gay. This is just plain lunacy.

In the global model, the nations that allow gays to serve openly, including Israel, have not reported a loss of military cohesion as a result of lifting their own bans.

That being the case, it undercuts the military's sole argument...that it would be some sort of grand social experiment and the sky might possibly fall. It is not an experiment...we have successful examples to point to. This is a no-brainer.

Additionally, in polling, a vast majority of people favored lifting the policy. In fact, even a plurality of Conservatives favored it.

So, what do we get now...Defense Secretary Robert Gates looking to use selective enforcement...another way of saying...humanely discriminate.

And today, Adm. Mike Mullen (pictured above), chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had some more absurdist comments on "State of the Union" on CNN.

As the AP reported Mullen said:

"It's very clear what President Obama's intent here is. He intends to see this law change.

"I've had conversations with him about that. What I've discussed in terms of the future is I think we need to move in a measured way," Mullen said.

One would think that would mean somebody is looking into how to change policy.

One would be wrong.

Mullen is actually loathe to initiate this at all. He said today,

"I haven't done any kind of extensive review. And what I feel most obligated about is to make sure I tell the president, you know, my — give the president my best advice, should this law change, on the impact on our people and their families at these very challenging times," he said

This is the most important issue in the glbt political spectrum for me. I find it more necessary to resolve than the marriage issue and here is why...

We cannot expect to be treated with dignity and respect until we get our house in order. It is imperative to understand the stigma of DADT.

Gay self-identity cannot be criminalized, in and of itself. It is unacceptable. Here we are seeking to gain the full civil rights afforded by marriage, rights that we pay into the system to fund, and another part of government codifies us as unworthy.

DADT says that there is something wrong with the mere fact that a person is gay. DADT says that a gay person who is true to one's self is not worthy to serve their country. In fact, DADT encourages gay people to lie. What sort of value is that?

It was not all that long ago that gays were being lobotomized. Gay people are executed, solely for who we are, to this day.

The very least Obama should do is issue a stop-loss order to prevent any more gay people from being discharged, until the policy gets lifted.

The next thing he should do is initiate the dialogue so that we get rid of this policy, once and for all.

To this point, Obama has done nothing.