Thursday, March 4, 2010

They say politics makes strange bedfellows and there is no more strange turn of events than the news of Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) introducing a bill to repeal the Clinton-era “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that mandates discrimination against openly gay and lesbian service members. This is the first time such a legislative effort materialized in the U.S. Senate.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network executive director, Aubrey Sarvis, issued this message for gay troops who now serving:

”The 66,000 gay and lesbian service members should know we are one big step closer to ending the ban.”

Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, has signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill, a rare move for the chairman.

I find it more than a little curious that in the 17 years since former President Bill Clinton took pen to hand and signed the viciously homophobic policy into law, not one of the LGBT community’s alleged Democratic friends in Congress dared to step-up and do what Sen. Joe Lieberman did.