Kristin Beck was a part of the elite Navy SEAL Team 6, the fabled unit that was ultimately responsible for Osama bin Laden's death. She served for 20 years and underwent 13 deployments. She was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for her decades of service. But during this time, Kristin wasn't known as Kristin —…
The ACLU had been in court for two years trying to get military service members who were involuntarily dismissed during don't ask, don't tell their full severance pay. The Obama Administration finally settled and agreed to pay full separation to all service members who were involuntarily separated after Nov. 10, 2004.…
Having openly gay people serving in the military was supposed to ruin everything—at least if you believed opponents of allowing them to serve openly. But a new Pentagon report given to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta this week says that, in fact, absolutely nothing has changed in the eight months since the ban on…
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Add this to the list of things gay members of the Armed Forces are allowed to do now that Don't Ask, Don't Tell is dead: kiss their partners, and upload the resulting photo to Facebook, causing everyone's heart to grow three sizes.
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Ambushing Republican candidates and asking them to explain their crappy positions on gay rights is becoming quite the trend in this election, and Rick Perry is the latest target. After a town hall meeting in Iowa, 14-year-old Rebecka Green approached Perry and said, "I just want to know why you're so opposed to gays…
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Top Marine officer Gen. James F. Amos has admitted that, despite his fears, the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell has not caused the destruction of the Marines.
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Like many victories, you take the bad with the good. For the GLBT military folks who attended the first-ever gay military personnel convention, OutServe, in Las Vegas yesterday the good has been the non-stop support and "shrugs" they received after they came out and the opportunities that are now opening up for them.
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Michele Bachmann, GOP Presidential hopeful from the Land of 10,000 WTF's, says she would reinstate the American military's newly-lifted Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy if elected President.
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"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" finally died at midnight last night, meaning thousands of people can serve openly in the military for the first time. Here are a few of them, and their partners, in celebration of the repeal.
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As of 12:01 tonight, homosexuals are allowed to serve openly in the U.S. military! Though Republicans recently tried one last time to stall the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" by claiming the new rules haven't been adequately examined, Pentagon press secretary George Little said on Monday that 97% of the military has…
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The Pentagon has announced that "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" will be officially repealed on Tuesday, but Republicans are having a hard time accepting that the military won't be allowed to discriminate against homosexuals anymore. This week two Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee asked Defense Secretary Leon…
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Sure, there's an insane heat wave hitting America and we're nearing a theoretical doomsday but I have to say, I never tire of hearing about the string of victories we're seeing in the LGBT community. Especially victories like this one.
A three-judge panel ruled that the U.S. has to stop enforcing Don't Ask Don't Tell immediately, rather than the drawn-out procedure that was a condition for Congress repealing it. Last week, the president said it would take "weeks, not months."
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Thanks to a backlash from congressmen (and four congresswomen), the Navy is backing away from its officer's memo saying that chaplains could perform gay marriages on bases as soon as Don't Ask, Don't Tell's repeal goes into effect.
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Lady Gaga is talking politics again — this time, immigration politics. You could be skeptical about the impact a celebrity could have on the political conversation — or you could look at certain other examples, including Gaga with the Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal.
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West Point has declined to readmit Katherine Miller, who famously withdrew from the school rather than continue closeted. That's because no one knows when Don't Ask Don't Tell's repeal will take effect.
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The Obama Justice Department has announced it will no longer fight for the Defense of Marriage Act in court. Gay rights advocates had long been infuriated that despite the administration's opposition to it, government lawyers were still defending in court the act that prohibits federal recognition of gay marriage.
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That's right, this lady really thinks that birds are falling out of the sky because "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was repealed.
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"We are not a nation that says, 'Don't ask, don't tell,'" said President Obama this morning, signing that policy's repeal. "We're a nation that says, 'Out of many we are one.'" He looked happy and relieved.
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Was the Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal — 17 years of tireless activism in the making, following setback after setback — the easy part?
