Today, as noted below, SLDN has organized a protest at the Capitol. This isn’t the first protest. In June of 2009, SLDN organized a protest in front of the White House to protest the President’s inaction on DADT repeal. The group wanted the President to lead. Still waiting. I am reposting my coverage of that protest. We had indications over a year ago that there was trouble with DADT repeal. SLDN got into a lot of trouble with the White House over this protest and the repeated efforts through 2009 to get the process moving. Back then, we all thought we’d get ENDA passed before DADT repeal. But, we didn’t even get a committee vote on ENDA. I don’t think anyone thought we’d get to the end of this session of Congress with neither. There’s still some hope on DADT, but everything has to go very smoothly with no procedural BS games.
According to press pool reports, President Obama was at the White House today. I hope he heard the noise from the protest organized by Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN). The group collected 265 buttons, symbolizing the 265 servicemembers who have been discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell since Obama took office, for delivery to the President.
As we all know, the President committed to ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeatedly during the primaries and general election. But, it hasn’t happened. Nothing has. As Obama said on his campaign website:
America is ready to get rid of the Don’t Ask, Dont Tell policy. All that is required is leadership.
Leadership. Yes. It is needed.
It’s really quite sad that SLDN has to protest to get the attention of the White House. But, we are where we are and this White House needs pressure. If you haven’t called yet, the number is 202-456-1414. Tell Obama to end the DADT policy — he has the power. Yes, we want a legislative repeal, but Obama can stop the discharges NOW. He is the leader.
Here’s a video with several scenes, too:
Still waiting for leadership. In June of 2009, this was a very brave act. No one on the progressive side was protesting Obama — except some gay activists. The DOMA brief was filed on June 12, 2009 so some of us were already aware that we didn’t have a fierce advocate, as promised. The gays were ahead of the curve.
