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Georgia U.S. Senate Candidates Tell Positions on Gays in the Military

There are five Democratic candidates vying to challenge Sen. Saxby Chambliss in the general election this fall. In a debate aired earlier today on WSB-TV, LGBT issues came up only in a reference to the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. In a year that saw Senate debate on Hate Crimes legislation and the Employment Nondescrimination Act (ENDA), not to mention gay marriage in California, I would have expected gay and lesbian issues to be a more prominent topic for debate. But what with two wars, a tanking economy, the mortgage mess, and the expense of tanking up with $4.00-plus gasoline, there was plenty else to discuss.

In the debate, three of the five candidates took a strong stand against the ban on gays serving openly in the military. Former State Rep. Jim Martin, a Vietnam veteran, made one of the most direct statements on the ban, saying that the policy was misguided to begin with. Candidate Rand Knight Ph.D., an Atlanta businessman, also said the ban should be lifted. Also in agreement: Josh Lanier, who pointed out that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has hurt our national security. He used the discharge of several gay Arabic linguists during wars in Arabic nations as a prime example. Mr. Lanier, a retired businessman from Statesboro, is a Vietnam veteran.

Less supportive were former investigative TV reporter Dale Cardwell, who gave a confusing answer that being gay in the military was not the issue, but rather sexual impropriety. He could be given the benefit of the doubt that he meant sexual impropriety by soldiers whether gay or straight. Or he could have been implying that gays are sexually promiscuous. Either way, his answer made me a little uncomfortable, especially when he added that the impact of GLBT servicemen and women on the other soldiers in the field needed to be studied. Mr. Cardwell, it already has.

Least supportive of all was controversial DeKalb County CEO Vernon Jones. After a generic statement on non-descrimination, he ended his answer by saying he supports Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Mr. Jones also indicated that he voted for George W. Bush twice, which for me calls into question his candidacy as a Democrat as well as his overall judgement.

Feeling less than informed about the candidates’ positions on GLBT issues, I researched for any endorsements by GLBT political groups and coverage of the campaigns by the media. There has been virtual radio silence on this Democratic primary, leaving me feeling frustrated and uninformed. I then took a look at each candidate’s Website and contacted each campaign to get more clarification on their stands. More on what I learned will be blogged in my next post.

What George Bush Doesn’t Know About Brian Muller

George Bush doesn’t know Brian Muller, but Brian knows George, rather intimately. Brian has been to Bush’s Crawford, Texas house many times when George wasn’t around. Brian searched everything that entered the ranch, from food to packages. Following the President outside the ranch, which is of course always guarded, Brian made sure that anywhere George went was safe. He looked behind artwork in restaurants. He examined the pews at church. He touched all the chairs and telephones and files in conference rooms.

If the President knew about Brian, he would likely be alarmed to know that he had been watched so closely, because Brian is a gay man. As a soldier who wasn’t asked, and didn’t tell—at least until the end—Brian kept his orientation under wraps while he went about his mission to uncover any dangers in Crawford, so that George could safely continue his reign of discrimination and exclusion, using his power to deny gay Americans basic rights at every opportunity.

Brian served in secrecy in the U.S. Army for eight years. Before Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell put an end to his military service, he put his life on the line every day as a bomb technician. He went to Bosnia three times. He was in one of the early waves of soldiers who went into Afghanistan in the late fall of 2001, just a couple of months following the tragedy on September 11. In Afghanistan, Brian’s unit searched for old Soviet munitions that had been left behind after Russia’s war effort there. What they found they destroyed, to prevent the bombs and chemicals and guns from ending up in the hands of Al Qaeda terrorists. They hiked high into the Afghan mountains and went into the infamous caves. More than once, they would evacuate small villages and destroy a cave full of unexploded shells.

In Afghanistan, Brian risked his life for his fellow soldiers and for ordinary Afghanis, even though it was often hard to tell which locals were innocent civilians and which were plotting against America. When a young Afghani boy rode a bicycle up to a group of soldiers, got off and walked away, Brian was the one who rushed to the bike and diffused the IED, at risk to his own life and limb, saving his fellow soldiers from becoming another on the Pentagon’s list of Americans killed in service to their country.

Among the lethal remnants the Soviets left behind were tanks of fuel air explosive. The Americans came in to remove the tanks, hoping to prevent the locals from killing themselves out of ignorance of the volatile nature of the high explosive liquid rounds in the tanks. The Afghanis would excavate high explosives out of abandoned, unexploded bombs to heat their homes and cook their families’ meals.

While loading the tanks on military transport, one tipped and spilled the explosive on Brian. He still fights a skin condition that resulted from the accident, five years after being kicked out of the Army for being gay. He struggled to get treatment from the VA. Apparently Brian’s injury was less deserving of healthcare because his skin is stretched across a gay man’s body.

After his tour of duty in Afghanistan, Brian was assigned to the Presidential detail with the Secret Service back in the states. His job was to clear deliveries to the Crawford estate and secure other locations of any danger before the President could enter. The technique for ensuring an area is safe for our leaders is alarmingly simple. It’s called “find or function.” Soldiers and agents touch and move everything. Any hidden explosives are either noticed and diffused, or they are touched and detonated. Anything Brian examined would either be deemed harmless or could be the last thing Brian touched before dying for a man who does not value Brian’s service.

Brian provided the same service to Vice President Cheney, traveling with him overseas to protect him in airport hangers, at press conferences and during speeches. Mr. Cheney doesn’t know that one young gay man risked his life to protect him, even though Cheney believes it’s okay for his daughter to be gay, but sits by passively as his party works to ensure that it’s not okay for the sons and daughters of other Americans to enjoy the same tolerance.

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Honor All Veterans–Including Gay Veterans

The Georgia Veterans Day Parade Association of Atlanta will honor American veterans tomorrow, unless those veterans happen to be against the war in Iraq and/or queer. The Atlanta Progressive News reports that the parade association initially denied applications to participate from The Veterans for Peace Chapter 125 (VFP) and American Veterans for Equal Rights Georgia (AVER), a national Veterans Service Organization created by and for LGBT veterans and service members. AVER is the only queer-focused organization recognized by the Veterans Administration, according to their Website.

The story is confirmed by a press release issued yesterday by VFP Greater Atlanta Chapter 125.

The parade association then later said that both groups can march but cannot display any messages of peace (by VFP), or exhibit any “public displays of affection” (in the case of AVER).

Apparently, the powers behind Atlanta’s Veterans Day Parade are willing to honor only those troops not threatened by the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy. And even if you’ve served your country in the armed forces, you should not be recognized unless you agree with Bush Administration policy on the war. Those who put themselves in harm’s way to fight for freedom, that lofty American ideal for which our President believes the terrorists “hate us for,” should be rewarded with the right to exercise those freedoms themselves. And that should include freedom of speech, to object to an unnecessary war that has costs thousands of lives, strained our military, racked up billions in debt and damaged America’s reputation around the world. And it should include the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, even if it happens to be a gay life.

To learn more about how you can support and honor LGBT veterans and currently-serving troops, visit AVER and the Servicemember’s Legal Defense Network.