Bernie voted against.. Don't ask Don't tell... principled integrity

[berniepdx420]

[RandySF]

1. And voting down DADT would have left the status quo in place

And in 1993, the status quo was witch hunts.

[berniepdx420]

2. Come on Randy.. take a break.. become a Progressive ...smell the roses .. join the People's

Revolution

[RandySF]

4. There were no votes for lifting the ban then

By the time Bill Clinton was sworn in, too many members went on record against. DADT at least stopped the investigations. Sorry but there are no unicorns.

[berniepdx420]

5. Codifying Bigotry has never been a Progressive Value... feel me

[merrily]

7. Your claim is the only unicorn on the thread. He didn't need votes for an EO.

[jfern]

3. The put discrimination into law, and liberals tended to vote against it

[RandySF]

8. Background

Congress rushed to enact the existing gay ban policy into federal law, outflanking Clinton's planned repeal effort. Clinton called for legislation to overturn the ban, but encountered intense opposition from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, members of Congress, and portions of the public. DADT emerged as a compromise policy.[36] Congress included text in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1994 (passed in 1993) requiring the military to abide by regulations essentially identical to the 1982 absolute ban policy.[37] The Clinton Administration on December 21, 1993,[38] issued Defense Directive 1304.26, which directed that military applicants were not to be asked about their sexual orientation.[37] This is the policy now known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". The phrase was coined by Charles Moskos, a military sociologist.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_ask,_don%27t_tell

[jfern]

10. DADT was a terrible policy that almost half of Democrats voted against

[merrily]

6. Reagan excluded gays from military with an Executive Order. Bubba could have revoked it the

same way.


Repeating back the same excuses for decades doesn't make them hold any more water than they did in 1992-2000.

[RandySF]

9. .

Engaging in homosexual activity has been grounds for discharge from the American military since the Revolutionary War. Policies based on sexual orientation appeared as the United States prepared to enter World War II. When the military added psychiatric screening to its induction process, it included homosexuality as a disqualifying trait, then seen as a form of psychopathology. When the army issued revised mobilization regulations in 1942, it distinguished "homosexual" recruits from "normal" recruits for the first time.[10] Before the buildup to the war, gay servicemembers were court-martialed, imprisoned, and dishonorably discharged; but in wartime, commanding officers found it difficult to convene court-martial boards of commissioned officers and the administrative blue discharge became the military's standard method for handling gay and lesbian personnel. In 1944, a new policy directive decreed that homosexuals were to be committed to military hospitals, examined by psychiatrists and discharged under Regulation 615-360, section 8.[11]

In 1947, blue discharges were discontinued and two new classifications were created: "general" and "undesirable". Under such a system, a serviceman or woman found to be gay but who had not committed any sexual acts while in service would tend to receive an undesirable discharge. Those found guilty of engaging in sexual conduct were usually dishonorably discharged.[12] A 1957 U.S. Navy study known as the Crittenden Report dismissed the charge that homosexuals constitute a security risk, but advocated stringent anti-homosexual policies because "Homosexuality is wrong, it is evil, and it is to be branded as such."[13] It remained secret until 1976.[14] Fannie Mae Clackum was the first service member to successfully appeal such a discharge, winning eight years of back pay from the US Court of Claims in 1960.[15]

From the 1940s through the Vietnam War, some notable gay servicemembers avoided discharges despite pre-screening efforts, and when personnel shortages occurred, homosexuals were allowed to serve.[


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_ask,_don%27t_tell

[merrily]

11. Point? What part of that says that Clinton could not have signed an Executive Order?

Or, what part of that says Reagan did not sign an Executive Order excluding gays from the military?

Don't just cut and paste a bunch of stuff from wiki and expect me to read your mind. If you have a point, state it.

Let's not try to tap dance, k?

The military had always been racially segregated from at least the Revolution, too. Truman, a former member of the WCC, ended that with an Executive Order.