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Next week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to begin floor debate on a defense authorization bill that would repeal the Clinton-era "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and allow homosexuals to serve openly in the armed forces. Last month, a top military official offered a glimpse of how the military might look should the new policy take effect: Those serving who oppose the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) agenda are no longer welcome. Those were the views of Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, the Army's deputy chief of staff in charge of personnel matters who spoke about "Don't...

What do you get when a celebrity speaks out on a current political, moral, religious or virtually any issue? You get the statements of some whose only qualifications for making a statement on the matter is that they are a celebrity and thus, someone is willing to place a microphone and camera before them. Within the speech we find Lady Gaga stating, “I wrote this speech, this address, myself, I've spent 48 hours…” but before you unload a flurry of sarcasm to the tune of, “My oh my, what an accomplishment that is!” keep in mind that by doing so,...

Much has been written of late concerning pop star Lady Gaga and her political statements. The criticism she’s received from many quarters has in my view been excessive and has completely missed the fact that on balance Gaga is using her fame in a positive way to promote what are often essentially conservative ideas – albeit in a decidedly countercultural context. I suspect it is this context which causes many conservatives to dismiss her because it’s simply not in their nature to take anyone with such an outlandish public persona seriously. While it’s undeniably true that Gaga has not always...

A Senate bill to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy appeared headed for defeat Tuesday, a major setback for gay groups that saw the vote as their last chance this year to overturn the 17-year-old ban. Advocates had been optimistic that the Democratic-controlled White House and Congress could overcome objections to repeal of the law barring gays from serving openly in the military. The move is unpopular among Republicans, military officers and social conservatives.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) tweeted Monday afternoon that she had just spoken with Lady Gaga, who has been lobbying the Senate ahead of Tuesday’s vote on a defense authorization bill that includes a repeal provision for “Don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT). “[I] thanked her for her advocacy,” said Gillibrand. “I asked her to keep pushing for DADT repeal.” Gaga had left a message with Gillibrand last week, prompting the senator to reach out on Twitter for another time to talk. The Grammy Award-winning pop icon attended a rally in Portland, Maine, on Monday with veterans discharged by the DADT policy,...

Harry Reid is from Nevada, so he’s familiar with gambling. Still, the Senate majority leader is taking a heck of a risk by asking his fellow Democrats to vote on an immigration bill so close to an election. Specifically, Reid said today he may attach the Dream Act to the defense reauthorization bill. What’s the Dream Act? It is legislation to offer a citizenship to illegal immigrants

Reid called the DREAM Act "really important" and said it should be passed because it provides a path to citizenship for young illegal immigrants who go to college or serve in the military.

Continuing his makeover from Republican to independent U.S. Senate candidate, Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday affirmed his support for civil unions, adoption by same-sex couples, and doing away with the military's ban on openly gay soldiers. Equality Florida, the state's leading gay rights group, called Crist's statement on a range of gay issues "the most comprehensive, pro-LGBT equality stand of a sitting governor in Florida's history." Crist's Democratic opponent for Senate, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, called it "too little too late." He and the Republican nominee, Marco Rubio, noted the governor had backed a 2008 amendment to the state constitution...

"Judge Cites Obama in Overturning ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’" SNIPPET: "The California-based federal judge who declared the military’s ban on homosexual conduct, known colloquially as ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ (DADT), is unconstitutional, based her decision in part on statements made by President Barack Obama himself." PHOTO CAPTION: "President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden participate in a Gay Pride Month event at the White House on Tuesday, June 22, 2010. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)" SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) – The California-based federal judge who declared the military’s ban on homosexual conduct, known colloquially as ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ (DADT), is unconstitutional, based...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A federal judge in Southern California has declared the U.S. military's ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips on Thursday granted a request for an injunction halting the government's "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gays in the military. Phillips says the policy doesn't help military readiness and instead has a "direct and deleterious effect" on the armed services. The lawsuit was the biggest legal test of the law in recent years and came amid promises by President Barack Obama that he will work to repeal the policy.

LaFauci, an administrative assistant in the certification unit in Danvers, said that when she told Bennett, who is gay, that she was upset by the overtures, Bennett cut her hours, unfairly disciplined her, and told her, “Who knows, AnnMarie, accidents happen, they could find you in the back parking lot with blood pouring out of your head.’’

Americans might soon have another reason to ask themselves: “What is the president thinking?”With the flourish of a veto pen, President Obama is likely to disappoint and confuse both friends and some foes this fall; an interesting choice given his approval-rating challenges. How will President Obama manage to infuriate some conservatives and many liberals all at once? By vetoing a defense spending bill – a bill that would please some national defense conservatives by supporting our troops and please liberals by foolishly ending the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. So why would he miss what some political observers call...

WASHINGTON (Aug. 16) -- The military is throwing out women disproportionately under its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, even as the number of service members discharged for being gay reached a new low last year. According to Pentagon statistics released by the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, 428 service members were discharged in 2009 under the policy that President Barack Obama has vowed to end. That's the lowest number since the policy began in 1994 and continues a steady decline that began after the 9/11 attacks. More than 13,500 gays and lesbians have been discharged since...

In what was likely his last appearance in the Pentagon briefing room, soon-to-be retiring Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Conway once more waded into the “don’t ask, don’t tell” waters with his straight-shooter candor by suggesting that “very religious” Marines with “moral concerns” about homosexuality might not be forced to live with their gay battle buddies. Marines are billeted – or assigned sleeping quarters – in twos. Already earlier this year, Conway told Military.com that he "would not ask our Marines" to bunk in the same rooms with openly gay Marines. But exactly what about cohabitation worried him was unclear....

<p>An Idaho aviator has reached an agreement with the U.S. Air Force to temporarily block his discharge under the "don't ask, don't tell" law that bars openly gay and lesbian military members from service.</p> <p>The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network says an agreement reached Monday prevents the Air Force from discharging Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach until a judge can consider its request for a court order to stop his ouster from the military.</p>

In the scandal involving the theft and release of classified military information that could cost the lives of U.S. military personnel, the British Telegraph newspaper is reporting that the American soldier at the center of the scandal was "openly homosexual" and apparently held a grudge against the U.S. because of the military's anti-gay policy. In another bizarre twist, reliable reports suggest that Private First Class Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army Intelligence analyst accused of leaking the classified information to the WikiLeaks.org website, was not only a homosexual but was considering a sex change. Manning was arrested at the end of...

"The revelations of Manning’s openly pro-homosexual conduct suggest that a more liberal Department of Defense policy, in deference to the wishes of the Commander-in-Chief, had already been in effect and has now backfired in a big way. The result could be not only the loss of the lives of U.S. soldiers, as a result of the enemy understanding U.S. intelligence sources and methods, but damaged relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan and a possible U.S. military defeat in the region as a whole." - Accuracy in Media The suspect in the leaking of classified military files, Spc. Bradley Manning, voiced his...

Click here to find out more! America is one of many countries that forbid openly gay people to serve in the military. Others are: Cuba, China, Egypt, Greece, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey and Venezuela. See a pattern? With a few exceptions, those are not countries where free people want to live. By contrast, Australia, the United Kingdom, Israel, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia and Spain all allow gay people to serve. No country has America's in-between policy: Gays can serve -- as long...

SNIPPET: "Lt. Dan Choi was finally discharged from the New York Army National Guard on Thursday after announcing his homosexuality more than a year ago on a cable TV show hosted by a radical lesbian activist. Choi has been campaigning for repeal of the 1993 law that says homosexuals are not eligible to serve in the military, the same law that has often been confused with Bill Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy -- a policy that prohibits the military from asking about the sexual orientation of service members but requires discharge of those who acknowledge being homosexual or are...

A copy of the Pentagon survey gauging the impact of repealing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell ban on gay soldiers serving openly in the military has been leaked to the Palm Center research institute. You can read it here.