In a big, rousing, emotional ceremony this morning, President Obama signed legislation that put an end to DADT.
Mr. Obama began the ceremony by telling the story of a brave WWII soldier who risked his life to save the life of a fellow soldier. Years later, the soldier whose life was saved came to learn that the man who rescued him was gay. Today, the saved soldier's son was at the historic signing ceremony.
President Obama thanked everyone who worked hard to get this bill passed, while the crowd wildly cheered after he mentioned each legislator's name as well as the military and civilian personnel who worked selflessly to end the dishonorable DADT.
The crowd was high on happiness and pride for this country.
Well done, America!
Except for this nutty news from the state of Virginia:
"A state lawmaker from Virginia is so upset about the Congress repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell that he wants to institute a mini-DADT banning gay men and lesbians from the Virginia National Guard.Has someone put stupid in the drinking water of that state? Because that would be the only explanation for the cringingly idiotic statements in that news report.
"It's a distraction when I'm on the battlefield and have to concentrate on the enemy 600 yards away and I'm worried about this guy whose got eyes on me," the lawmaker, Delegate Bob Marshall (R), told WUSA9. "If I needed a blood transfusion and the guy next to me had committed sodomy 14 times in the last month I'd be worried."
Marshall says he's working on legislation to institute a DADT-style state law. His authority to do so, he claims, comes from the clause of the U.S. Constitution which reads, "reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia."
But Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), who as the authority to deploy the state National Guard in a state emergency, says no way.
"Whatever the final guidelines are from the Department of the Defense, I expect the Virginia National Guard Bureau to adhere to them," McDonnell said during a WTOP radio show today."
This statement is especially dumb and jaw-droppingly ignorant,
"If I needed a blood transfusion and the guy next to me had committed sodomy 14 times in the last month I'd be worried."
and is a sorry example of how people, who should know better, use stupid lies and absolute erroneous hypotheticals to scare people who don't know better. Virginia Republican state legislator Bob Marshall and Governor McDonnell are examples of why I have no respect for a party that elevates people to positions of power who continue to support inequality and pander to the worst in people's nature. They are on the wrong side of history, along with Republican Senator John McCain and all the other dinosaurs in the Republican party who bitterly cling to their hatreds and fears.
They lost this fight, and we're a better country because they did.
