I’ve said this many times before, but here it is again: My pride and affection for the American experiment lies in its ability to improve itself, to get better. This morning, America got better.
Finally, after decades of a terrible and ridiculous compromise that left thousands of American servicepeople as second-class citizens, the military policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” is dead.
It lies in the graveyard of many other terrible mistakes in bigotry: Slavery, segregation, bans on miscegenation, the accepted social and workplace mistreatment of women, and, more recently, bans on sexual practices between people of the same gender.
Yes, it is still illegal (or, at least, not recognized) in most states to marry the person you love. And, it is still legal to fire somebody for their sexual orientation alone. But, we can take pride in the fact that the entirely of the United States Armed Forces can now say: “You are accepted here, no matter who you are. And, you don’t have to lie about it.”
This is the change we believed in. This is the hope we had when we elected the man who stands as the President of the United States. We may have misgivings; we may feel that the wave of hope for a better future, and the expectation that Washington could change, stopped at the rocky shore of political reality. Years of bickering over the economy, health care, public debt, and social issues has darkened our vision of what we thought would be a better future.
There’s still much to do. Same-sex couples in the military who are married in states that recognize it are barred from receiving spousal privileges due to the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that needs to be ended. Also, the military was not alone in its power to discriminate against gays: any private workplace is allowed to fire someone for their sexual orientation. That also needs to end. There are many old, tired and terrible policies that should be changed, updated, reformed, or repealed.
But things are changing. Things are getting better. America is getting better.
It gets better.
