Oh, how I love him:

Today I listened to Michael Medved and some moron from a “Religious Liberty” think-tank flipping out about the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Their thesis was that forcing God-fearing, 1000% straight men like themselves to share locker rooms and barracks with gay men will mean the end of civilization, presumably because all that uncorrupted religious straight-dude flesh will be too much of a temptation for gay soldiers — who naturally will have enlisted for deadly dangerous combat in stinking Middle Eastern hell-holes just to get a glimpse of toothless Christian boys from Arkansas naked. These megachurch-bred anti-gay advocates with their visceral terror about the end of the closet, sure that liberated gay men by the hundreds will be lying in wait to rape them the instant the shower-nozzles turn on … I mean, the amount of projection going on is so obvious, it’s almost laughable.

(Quote comes as an aside in a longer rant about Rush Limbaugh’s comments that, if New York Governor David Paterson appoints the replacement for Big Gay Groper Eric Massa, it will be the first time Paterson himself is a “massa.” But don’t call Rush racist, you guys!  And by all means, if you have Republican family members/coworkers who think that’s funny, don’t call them on it, because they’ll just start telling you how much they didn’t mind it when a black family lived near them.)

The Family Research Council today made the ludicrous claim that repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will prevent ex-gay activists from converting gay soldiers to heterosexuality.

This legislation would more than open the Armed Forces to homosexuals; it would lead to a zero-tolerance policy toward anyone who disapproves of homosexuality. Will the chaplains’ sermons be censored? Would they have the freedom to counsel soldiers with same-sex attractions? Or would they be disqualified from the service altogether? For more on what this would mean to military quotas, don’t miss Ken Blackwell’s op-ed, “President Obama and Military ‘Corpsemen’” in Townhall.

By framing its false accusations as questions, FRC pollutes the public discourse and sidesteps its obligation to substantiate its allegations. FRC also sidesteps the U.S. Constitution — a document that FRC views with cynical contempt — and its guarantees of freedom of religion.

But even this concern about framing gives FRC far too much credit.

The contention that the armed services are chock-full of well-armed, effeminate ex-gay chaplains like Randy Thomas, just waiting to convert terrified and bullied (but masculine) gay soldiers to ex-gay “heterosexuality,” might be one of the saddest funniest things I’ve ever read from FRC.

Might be. Except, that DADT and its predecessor policy permit violent, mentally disturbed, antigay and ex-gay soldiers to not only serve, but murder their gay comrades. The same policy also preserves a servicewide culture of rape and sexual assault by antigay men against female servicemembers.

FRC silently condones a string of killings and assaults committed under DADT — it has never condemned any of the killings, nor called for punishment of antigay violence and harassment in the services. So when you read the ridiculous, irrational, and patently stupid claims of FRC, please restrain the urge to laugh.

Because murder in defense of stupidity is not something to laugh at.

Peter LaBarbera is very confused as to why conservatives like Kathleen Parker, Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, et al., support repeal of DADT.

Um, because beltway conservatives never actually cared what fringe religious people thought in the first place, and they don’t really like you?  Because y’all are just stupid votes to them?  Always have been, always will be?

This has been Simple Answers to Simple Questions.

Also:  Staff Sergeant Major Corporal Queen of the Tuff Guys’ Privates Laurie Higgins of the loathsome Illinois Family Institute is mad about the eventual repeal of DADT, because she only wants to protect the Fundamentalist Christian Cowards who are so scared of gay people that they wouldn’t re-enlist if they had to serve alongside openly gay soldiers, sailors, airmen, etc.  Also, she thinks people are more accepting of LGBT people these days because “intellectual conservative voices” (HA HA HA) have been silenced on the issue.  I say:  If they’re such shivering pansies that they can’t handle openly gay servicemembers, then they’re obviously not brave enough to be defending our freedom in the first place, especially considering the fact that most servicemembers are already comfortable with gay people in general, and a lot of them already know for sure that they serve with gays.  It doesn’t bother them.

I guess the majority of our military just has a wee bit stronger spine than fundamentalist cowards like Laurie Higgins.

And may I add:  USA!  USA!  USA!

Love it or leave it, Higgins.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Richard Socarides makes some excellent points about ending the military’s disastrous Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell policy. Socarides was special assistant to President Bill Clinton and senior White House adviser on LGBT equality from 1997-1999. Of special interest to our readers, he is also the son of NARTH co-founder Charles Socarides.

Occasionally, I run into Richard around the neighborhood – like at Joe’s Coffee in the morning. He’s a very nice guy, as well as someone who is extremely smart and articulate. We are fortunate to have him fighting on our side.

Here are a few excerpts from his Wall Street Journal commentary:

As a candidate for president, Barack Obama told the country’s leading gay rights group, the Human Rights Campaign, “America is ready to get rid of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. All that is required is leadership.” Now he is about to decide whether he will make good on his promise to end what he called a “policy of discrimination.”

….

What is especially troubling, however, is Mr. Obama’s oversensitivity to a dwindling minority of bigots on this issue. Hundreds of military careers have been destroyed on his watch for no valid reason. The country has been deprived of the talents of these service members and has wasted millions of dollars on their training.

….

Gay Americans have been among the president’s most ardent supporters. Their enthusiasm, and that of their families and friends, could be crucial in this year’s elections. The president’s action—or inaction—on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell will be noticed.

An increasingly frustrated bloc of gay voters—angry over marriage setbacks in California, Maine, New Jersey and New York and emboldened by Ted Olson’s and David Boies’s high-profile effort to declare unconstitutional laws that prohibit gay marriage—are growing impatient for equality. As Mr. Olson said in federal district court in San Francisco recently, discriminatory laws serve only to “label gay and lesbian persons as different, inferior, unequal and disfavored.”

Focus on the Family yesterday criticized the American Medical Association for spelling out, in detail, the plain truth:

Christian Right discrimination against LGBT couples and gay servicemembers negatively impacts public health.

A complete copy of the AMA resolution is available in PDF format.

Focus on the Family did not provide readers with a copy of the resolution, nor did it disclose to its readers the facts supporting the AMA resolution.

While we hope for the day when LGBT servicemembers are respected equally, we pause to thank our armed forces — gay and straight — for their service to country.