The Repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell: What it Means for Diversity

I know its been a while since I have written. Sometimes life comes in the way but I am back and in full effect. There has been so much to write about but I feel this is the perfect time to come back on the scene.

Yesterday President Obama signed legislation banning the military policy historically known as Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I could not be more happy for this development, not only for those in the LGBT community but for this country as a whole. I was a child when President Bill Clinton passed this legislation. As a young kid I didn't know what it really meant at the time. As I got older and began to make my own opinions about things in life, this was one of the most blatantly hyprocritical pieces of legislation that America had on its books. There is something very wrong with a country that is supposed to be founded on the premise of men and women being created equal having a law on its books that didn't allow for members of its armed services to participate fully and equally in the ranks of its military. To ask a man or a woman to potentially die for a country and a principle that didn't fully recognize their humanity is incredibly hard to fathom. What made this policy even worse was that we often ask our servicemen and women to go into battle in countries that already view America as a negative country. How could this be.

In the battle for full and equal human rights in the United States of America, the repealing of DADT will be looked at as just as significant as the passing of major Civil Rights legislation during the 1960's. Often times people try not to equate Civil Rights in the 1960's with modern day movements, but there is no doubt that they are all related. Even listening to our President yesterday, I could not help but feel that we were on the right side of history much in the way that many who were alive during the Civil Rights Laws being passed felt that they were on the right side of history. I believe that we as Americans can all feel that the goal of equality and the creation of a more equal union while still a way off, is closer to reality.

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