{"id":385711,"date":"2010-03-03T16:11:24","date_gmt":"2010-03-03T21:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogs.rj.org,2010:\/rac\/\/2.2529"},"modified":"2010-03-03T17:15:50","modified_gmt":"2010-03-03T22:15:50","slug":"a-good-day-for-the-gays-all-of-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/385711","title":{"rendered":"A Good Day for the Gays (& All of Us!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CucVu.JPG\"<\/span>Their stories<\/a> are so happy they literally brought me to tears – one couple is waiting for the birth of their first child; another has been engaged for a whopping 18 years. And now, those couples are filing for marriage licenses.<\/p>\n

Today, the District of Columbia joined five states in allowing same-sex marriage<\/a>, though couples won’t be able to marry until Tuesday, at the earliest, because application processing takes three business days. By mid-afternoon today, 124 couples had filed for marriage, and you can bet there are more to come. Cuc Vu, Chief Diversity Adviser for the Human Rights Campaign, is pictured on the right with her soon-to-be wife in a photo from the Washington Post<\/i>is photo gallery<\/a> on DC’s legalization of same-sex marriage. <\/p>\n

As always, opponents are already at work trying to put a stop to the new law, but for now, victory is sweet – literally, in fact, as a local cupcakery passed out free dessert coupons<\/a> to the couples who filed for marriage today!<\/p>\n

And that’s not the only good news. This morning, Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) introduced the Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2010<\/a>,
\nwhich would repeal the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy
\nthat prohibits gay and lesbian servicemembers from serving openly. The
\npolicy, enacted under President Bill Clinton, has been in place for 17
\nyears. In that time, an estimated 3,500 men and women have been
\ndischarged from the military under the policy, including about 350 who
\nspoke foreign languages essential to military readiness, such as
\nArabic. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who joined Sen. Lieberman at
\nthis morning’s introduction press conference, noted that the policy
\ndisproportionately affects women, who make up a mere 17 percent of the
\nmilitary, but account for a whopping one-third of discharges under
\n“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”<\/p>\n

\"Lieberman.jpg\"<\/span>At this morning’s introduction, Lieberman said the policy is “is
\ninconsistent with our most important national values and diminishes our
\nmilitary readiness.” He was also joined by Armed
\nServices Committee Chairman Carl Levin (Mich.), as well as Sens. Ron
\nWyden (D-OR), Mark Udall (D-CO), and Roland Burris (D-IL). Discharged
\nservicemembers spoke during the press conference, flanked by others
\nwearing shirts that read “Fired Under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”<\/p>\n

On Huffington Post<\/i>, Sen. Udall writes<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\nThe wishes of the American people are clear, but some members of the Senate still believe our soldiers can’t handle serving with openly gay and lesbian servicemembers. I couldn’t disagree more.<\/p>\n

That’s why I’m asking you to join me in supporting this crucial legislation by becoming a citizen cosponsor<\/a> to prove, once and for all, that Americans will no longer tolerate this unfair policy that hampers our fighting men and women.<\/p>\n

Our Armed Forces are the best in the world, and it’s high time we stopped handicapping them with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Please join me and voice your support for repealing this harmful policy, right now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Their stories are so happy they literally brought me to tears – one couple is waiting for the birth of their first child; another has been engaged for a whopping 18 years. And now, those couples are filing for marriage licenses. Today, the District of Columbia joined five states in allowing same-sex marriage, though couples […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-385711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}