13,500. In the scheme of cities, and the world, that number doesn’t seem like that much. But in the scheme of the army, 13,500 troops is a force to be reckoned with.
13,500 troops constitute nearly a whole division of soldiers. 13,500 is two to three regiments, taking on combat missions. It’s nearly 13 battalions ready for service. It’s 67 companies fighting side by side. It’s 337 platoons taking on critical missions. It’s 1350 squads of soldiers watching out for each other. It’s 3375 fireteams rushing into battle to protect each other.
In reality, 13,500 is a lot. And when I think about the 13,500 soldiers who have been discharged from the military because they are gay Americans, it makes me think that our leaders must not actually care about this country’s national defense. In a time where we are fighting war on two fronts, is it really a good time to be discharging 800 mission critical troops (which, by the way, would constitute one battalion, four companies, 20 platoons, 80 squads and 200 fireteams)?
While our troops are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, is it really a good time to be dismissing troops who have training in Arabic and Farsi? And if a soldier is willing to lay down his or her life for their country, shouldn’t that be enough to prove commitment and patriotism? Straightness is no litmus test for courage, valor, honor or heroism…just ask Mark Bingham of Flight 93.
No one should have to lie about his or her identity in order to fight for and protect the freedoms of others. If there was ever one group that deserved to be honored and respected, isn’t it our troops?
For these reasons, CRANE is marching on Myrick. You can not preach national security with one side of your mouth and then uphold a policy that hurts military readiness with the other. You don’t get to “own” issues of national security and defense while simultaneously going against the recommendations of top military officials who are serving now.
Please help us reach our goal of collecting 13,500 toy soldiers- one for every soldier willing to fight and die for this country but wasn’t considered “fit” due to their sexual orientation. It’s time to stop government sponsored discrimination.
Marriage equality comes home
I think I never really thought I’d get married till today. Not legally; not without flying off to Iowa or Massachusetts or Canada and accepting that only a few family members could be with me. Not without knowing that in the eyes of my state, my city, my country, and a goodly lot of my fellow citizens, my marriage wouldn’t be real.
I lived in D.C. till two years ago, when I came back home to Charlotte, and it’s kinda still my town. The photos of giddy soon-marrieds on the steps of the courthouse reminds me of that one Saturday I got lost downtown looking for lunch, and my friend and I ended up wandering all the way from the Mall to Chinatown, talking much faster than we walked. The Superior Court is near the Judiciary Square Metro station, which I’d only pass through on the way to Metro Station to “go Amtrak!” Those courthouse steps aren’t exactly the sort of courthouse steps you’d remember, I don’t think I even have a specific memory of them, but the photos sparked a pang of homesickness.
Awesome guys photographed by Bill O'Leary of the Washington Post
Like this amazingly cute couple:
D.C. isn’t home to me anymore, despite now being home to marriage equality. Home is where the heart is, and Charlotte’s where I get to be with my family, my Valentine, and of course my pink & sparkly activist friends. Some day we won’t have to line up at the Government Center to protest Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, or march there to stake our claim to marriage equality. We’ll be lined all the way up 4th Street waiting to confidently request what’s rightfully ours. We’ll be equal.
While I’m at it, I have to plug the New York Times’ Bay Area blog and its incredible, on-the-ground coverage of the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case, which if you don’t know is going to blow the lid off this whole “traditional marriage” mumbo-jumbo. Honestly, I think it already did, simply by exposing that the h8ters have no rational basis whatsoever for preventing fabulous gay folks from getting married. Closing arguments haven’t been scheduled, so we don’t know when the ruling will come. Check out the Bay Area blog’s excellent summary on the possible outcomes of the case, and if you haven’t kept up on it, take some time to read their absorbing day-by-day breakdowns: