Free Republic

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Gay students at America's military service academies are wrapping up the first year when they no longer had to hide their sexual orientation, benefiting from the end of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that used to bar them from seemingly ordinary activities like taking their partners openly to graduation events. For the first time, gay students at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis were able to take a same-sex date to the academy's Ring Dance for third-year midshipmen. The U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., officially recognized a club for gay students this month....

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell isn’t yet ready to endorse a presidential candidate, but on Wednesday evening, he endorsed same-sex marriage. Powell, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1993 when “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was implemented, said in an interview on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer that he has “no problem” with marriage equality and speculated that most Americans are prepared to adapt to changing times. “As I've thought about gay marriage, I know a lot of friends who are individually gay but are in partnerships with loved ones. And they are stable...

City official consults Ouija board before vote SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A San Francisco supervisor says he consulted a Ouija board before city leaders voted on whether to recommend naming a Navy ship after slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk. Supervisor John Avalos tells the San Francisco Chronicle (http://bit.ly/KnVnbu ) that he believes he made contact with Milk's spirit and that Milk spelled out letters indicating: "Good riddance to don't ask, don't tell." The Board of Supervisors approved the non-binding resolution Tuesday on a 9-2 vote. Milk was a city supervisor and former naval officer. He was fatally shot in...

WASHINGTON – Military leaders have concluded that last year's repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in uniform has not affected morale or readiness so far, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday. "My view is that the military has kind of moved beyond it. It's become part and parcel of what they've accepted within the military,"

Romney on DADT (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell) Question: How do you feel about gays serving openly in the military. Romney: That’s already occurred and I’m not planning on reversing that at this stage. < Question: But you’re comfortable with it? Romney: I was not comfortable making the change during a period of conflict, by virtue of the complicating the features of a new program in the middle of two wars going on, but those wars are winding down and moving to that direction at this stage no longer presents that problem. November 9, 2011: Romney meeting with the editorial board...

Calls from national media, state activists, and more POSTED: Jan. 8, 2012 Calls and emails have been coming in from across the country. As we've recently reported, former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney publicly re-stated his support for homosexual "rights" in America while campaigning in Iowa last month. This included his agreement with the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" in the military; he said he wouldn't reverse that. He does say that marriage itself should be one man and one woman — but that homosexual relationships should be recognized, respected, and supported. Romney discusses his views on "gay rights" with...

...Six months after the military dropped the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” law barring gays from serving openly, Pentagon officials and gay rights advocates say the policy change has largely been a non-issue, with few complaints and no major headaches resulting from the new rules...

The Thomas More Law Center, this past Tuesday, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of the Navy. The purpose of the lawsuit is to obtain records believed to show intentional deception by the Pentagon to gain congressional support for repeal of the 1993 law regarding open homosexual conduct in the military, usually called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Erin E. Mersino, the Thomas More Law Center attorney handling the case, explained the reason for the lawsuit, “Based on what we know thus far, the Pentagon engaged in a pattern of deception in its efforts to persuade...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A recent spike in HIV infections has been linked to military men in Fairbanks. The Anchorage Daily News (http://bit.ly/ybxrzi ) says newly-released public health data shows that the increase is linked to military men finding sex partners online. Data shows that the outbreak involves nine cases of HIV infection from Jan. 1, of last year to Jan. 31 of this year. The state Department of Health and Social Services says from 2007 through 2010, the number of HIV cases reported in the Fairbanks area was fairly stable. However, that changed this last year. Health officials say of...

WASHINGTON — "We don't need you, so shut up!" That's the message the Obama administration has sent loud and clear to America's Roman Catholics. And it's a message now being sent to U.S. military chaplains — to the detriment of our armed forces. During World War II, the War Department and the Department of the Navy urged — the operative word is "urged," not "ordered," mind you — U.S. military chaplains to encourage soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines that God was on our side in the global battle against fascists, Nazis and the godless heathens running rampant across...

Navy Times is reporting that besides screwing over retirees in the 2012 Defense budget, Congress approved Fags marrying on base. We were busying arguing over who one the budget battle and our Tea Party Consrvative Congress slip us one in the rear. If this were a war heterosexuals have lost, defeated by our own Quislings in Congress. Every day in the military we are bombarded with gay love stories. How in Gods name did we ever win a war without the butt pirates and carpet munchers. There are no conservatives left in American politics. They give fags whatever they want....

Three months after President Obama lifted the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military, Pentagon officials say heterosexual troops are adjusting well to the new policy. However, critics say they are just following orders, and many are complaining privately. “I’m very pleased with how it has gone,” Gen. James Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, told reporters on a recent trip to Afghanistan to visit U.S. troops. However, a recent survey by the Military Times newspaper showed a rise in tensions in units with troops who declared themselves to be homosexuals. The online poll from Sept. 26 to...

CNSNews.com) – Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, says he has no plans to reverse the Obama administration’s repeal of the ban on homosexuals serving in the U.S. military In an editorial meeting in early November with the Des Moines Register, which endorsed him for the Iowa caucuses pending on Jan. 3, Romney was asked, “How do you feel about gays serving openly in the military?” Romney said, “That’s already occurred. I’m not planning on reversing that at this stage.” The reporter followed up, “But you’re comfortable with it?”

The American soldier alleged to have leaked vast numbers of classified documents to Wikileaks was prone to tantrums and at one point struck a female superior, a court heard today. Captain Casey Fulton, an Army intelligence officer who worked in the same secure facility as 24-year-old Bradley Manning, described a violent outburst in May 2010 at their secure office or SCIF (Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility). Fulton said she ordered a derogatory report against Manning, who is charged with downloading hundreds of thousands of sensitive files from the military's classified network when he was a U.S. Army intelligence analyst in Iraq,...

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) -- An Army witness says the intelligence analyst blamed for the largest-ever leak of U.S. secrets boastfully declared he was changing history in a letter adjoining some data he allegedly sent to WikiLeaks.

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) -- The young Army intelligence specialist accused of passing government secrets spent his 24th birthday in court Saturday as his lawyers argued his status as a gay soldier before the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" played an important role in his actions. Lawyers for Pfc. Bradley Manning began laying out a defense to show that his struggles as a gay soldier in an environment hostile to homosexuality contributed to mental and emotional problems that should have barred him from having access to sensitive material. Manning is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive items...

Bestiality isn’t a common subject of White House press briefings. But that changed Monday, when White House Press Secretary Jay Carney granted WorldNetDaily reporter and radio host Lester Kinsolving a question during a press briefing. Kinsolving proceeded to ask about the president’s support for a recent Senate vote that would repeal bans on sodomy and bestiality in the U.S. military. “The Family Research Council and CNS News both reported a 93-to-7 U.S. Senate vote to approve a defense authorization bill that, quote, ‘includes a provision which not only repeals the military law on sodomy, but also repeals the military ban...

I could be wrong about this but here goes: This grotesque bill, see link below, was passed on Thursday. I didn't listen to talk radio on Friday but I suspect it wasn't mentioned by Rush, Hannity or Levin. I could be wrong. My guess is our talk radio pundits won't touch it. The fix is in. THe Pink Hand touches all, even Jim Demint. Cowards.Original thread link. Senate Approves Bill that Legalizes Sodomy and Bestiality in U.S. Military

Military chaplains could decline to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies under a measure approved this week by the Senate. The amendment, proposed by Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., was added Wednesday to the massive, must-pass defense spending bill. The Senate approved the spending bill Thursday night by a vote of 93-7.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said individuals should not be questioned on their “decision about their sexuality” and said he would be “comfortable” returning to the military policy of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” Perry said DADT worked well before President Obama repealed it in what Perry described as a response to Obama’s political base. “I think you go back to commanders in the field and have that conversation. I think Don’t Ask Don’t Tell worked very well,” Perry said in an ABC News/Yahoo interview with Christiane Amanpour. “I think the idea that the president of the United States wanted to make...