Don't ask don't tell

I do not think that I could not write a social justice blog without including an article on the DADT (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell) policy in the states. I did not know exactly what the DADT was so i did some quick research and Wikipedia told me that” DADT is the common term for the policy restricting the United States military from efforts to discover or reveal closeted gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members or applicants, while barring those that are openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual from military service” (Wiki online, para1, June 4^th 2010).  

Recently the Service members Legal Defence Network  has been trying to “improve” this policy because they want to try and reduce the number of service discharges. I say “improve” like this because I think this is the most ridiculous United States “policy” there is. The SLD says that: “The updated language does not change the fact that statements, acts, or same-sex marriage, are still grounds for discharge under DADT, including:

·         A service member can still be fired if outet by his or her parents;

·         A service member can still be fired for revealing his or her sexual orientation while making a statement to the police that would prevent or help solve a crime;

·         A service member’s middle school teacher can still out the service member 10 years after he came out to her in social studies class;

·         A service member can still be discharged if he reports that someone has threatened to kill him for being gay;

·         A service member can still be fired for hugging someone of the same sex;

·         A service member can still be fired for getting married; and

·         A service member can still be fired for saying she would like to return from Iraq to care for her dying girlfriend.

 I understand that this is supposed to protect service members of the military from discharge, but the fact that if you are a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and you have to disclose this information to keep your job is outrageous. How come a straight person is allowed to talk about their spouse and children back home. Although I do have to give credit to Pres. Obama, as he has promised repeal it within his term. But many other countries accept LGBT military members. Ex  LGBT  service members have been asked to write letters to the president to hopefully speed up the process of repealing the policy.