President Obama famously put an end to “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT), but can we be sure that it will remain a thing of the past if Mitt Romney becomes president?
Nope.
This is at the Daily Beast:
Aubrey Sarvis, an Army veteran and executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), a national nonprofit legal services and policy organization that helped to end DADT, says Romney’s position on open service for gays and lesbians has been “contradictory since he entered the race. He initially said he would not change the current policy, then he said he would look to his commanders for recommendations. The party platform suggests that all military policies by Obama will be revisited by Romney. This could mean an all-new set of regulations in a Romney Administration.”
Sarvis says some people mistakenly think that gays and lesbians in the military are serving under a new federal statute, but that is not what Congress did. “Congress repealed the old statute and left it up to Department of Defense to write a new set of regulations,” he says. “The reality is that a new Secretary of Defense appointed by a President Romney could issue a new set of regulations that might be discriminatory against gays and lesbians, and Romney wouldn’t even have to have his fingerprints on this change.”
The pressure from Romney’s bigot base to reverse President Obama’s policy and force gay service members to conceal their sexual identity will be immense. The coat hanger and the closet. On a Romney victory, expect them to loom again.
Prometheus Unbound 
Must admit flaunting homosexuality in military did not seem a priority with the amazing amount of problems we are fighting all at once. President Obama did officially celebrate gays, transgenders, and pedophiles this year. Do we need military brigades in lavender and dog collars as seen in Mardi Gras? Maybe that is our biggest concern, since we can’t solve any threatening problem to our nation’s economy or security. Okay, let’s elect Obama so the gays are happy. Homosexuals living on the street with record number of families won’t be too happy seeing the economy make us all poor and homeless.
Yes, I think that expanding the happiness of gay Americans, and promoting their equality, are two good reasons to support Obama.
As for jobs, Romney said, “Let Detroit fail.” Now Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive. These are two things that shouldn’t be ignored.
You can read in Ron Susskind’s book, “Confidence Men,” the chapter on Obama’s decision process with regard to GM and Chrysler. Against strong advice from economists and Republican resistance, Obama sided with workers and, in this instance, fought for them. Maybe you care for neither gays nor auto workers, but these are two groups of Americans for whom Obama’s executive decisions have made a real difference.
I also want Obama, not Romney, picking the next Supreme Court justice. And if Netanyahu decides to attack Iran, I want a level-headed fellow like Obama at the helm and not a politician taking advisement from the same neoconservatives that mired us in Iraq.
If Obama doesn’t win, I also think it is likely that Romney won’t extract us from Afghanistan in 2014. And as deficit reduction talks begin in earnest after the election, I want at least one of the three branches of government representing middle class interests. This election matters.
–Santi
As a military leader and economist, Obama is a good community organizer. The only thing he knows about money is how to get his house from a mobster, and his wife got a free loading job since he was a senator in Illinois. He don’t know work, don’t know military, and got our fleet bottled up by Iran doing nothing but being a sitting duck.
Hobo,
Romney and Ryan are the freeloaders. They came from privilege. Neither of them had to work a day in their lives and their wealthy families would have been their safety net had they ever fallen into poverty. Obama literally came out of nowhere and was a nobody. His mother in Hawaii lived in a one bedroom bungalow. Obama is a self made man and his wife is an Ivy League graduate. Her gifts are considerable (as she has demonstrated as First Lady).
–Santi
Straight people “flaunt” their sexuality all the damn time without even realizing it. Every time you talk about your family, dates, wife, children, hobbies and personal life you tell the world that you are heterosexual.
And the military encourages that. Commanders are told to get into people’s lives and learn everything about them. Part of that is to increase unit cohesion and part is to notice potential personal problems early and deal with them.
Sexuality is inherent and a fundmental part of every human. However, if gays are offended by loving parents with children out in public, go to an alternate universe. We ain’t hiding who we are. Don’t think homosexuals need to feel they have to hide who they are. Why do homosexuals deserve preferential treatment in military? Married couples are just treated as military with no special preference. Why do gays need some special treatment?
Hobo:
Sounds like you agree with Obama: gays needn’t hide who they are. That’s not special treatment, that’s equal treatment (heteros needn’t hide who they are either).
–Santi