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US court orders halt to gay ban in army recruitment
A US appeals court has ordered the Obama administration to cease enforcing the ban on allowing gay men and women serving openly in the military.
The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a previous ruling which allowed the government to continue enforcing the "don't ask, don't tell" law (DADT).
President Barack Obama has repealed DADT, allowing gay military members to be open about their sexuality. But the law is still being enforced while the Pentagon drafts new rules.
A three-judge panel at the court in San Francisco said DADT must be lifted because the Obama administration concluded in December 2010 that it was unconstitutional to treat gay Americans differently under the law.
"The circumstances and balance of hardships have changed, and [the government] can no longer satisfy the demanding standard for issuance of a stay," the panel said.
The panel noted that Congressional lawmakers repealed the ban on gay military personnel in December and that the Pentagon is in the process of writing new rules for the policy.
The "don't ask, don't tell" law forbids gay soldiers from acknowledging their sexual orientation.
The removal of the ban on gay members of the military came in response to a motion brought by Log Cabin Republicans, an organisation for gay Republican Party members.
Last year, the group persuaded a lower court judge in California to declare the ban, which was formally adopted in 1993, unconstitutional.
But the government appealed US District Judge Virginia Phillips' decision, and the Ninth Circuit Court agreed to keep the policy in place until it could consider the case.
Officials at the Pentagon said on Wednesday they would comply with the court order and inform commanders in the field.
Gay advocates said an appeal from the Pentagon on the ruling is unlikely, considering the Obama administration is committed to repealing the policy.
"The ruling... removes all uncertainty," said Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director R Clarke Cooper.
"American service-members are no longer under threat of discharge as the repeal implementation process goes forward," he added.
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Not only drag queens are camp!
Two men mirroring each other in their dress code, with fake tans, foundation cream, eyeliner, lip-gloss, etc. etc., can only be described as camp inspite of their seemingly butch uniform.
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Make love not war :)
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OOPS, rectification: I mean to say "half the gay men are in the closet or have girlfriends and wives..."
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Bad Lettuce should check the meaning of "camp". There is nothing camp about this photo. Two hot men looking at the camera with an "I dare you to protest" look on their faces? Seems totally fitting to me.
"Camp", though very difficult to define (Susan Sontag wrote an entire essay on the word) could perhaps best be summed up by one of the statements made by her: "The whole point of Camp is to dethrone the serious. Camp is playful, anti-serious. More precisely, Camp involves a new, more complex relation to "the serious." One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious." and "...it is the farthest extension, in sensibility, of the metaphor of life as theater."
As for "doing the cause any favours", well, yes, two defiant men being openly together is a postive image for everyone to see, especially in Malta where half the men hide in the closet or behind girlfriends and wives who have no idea that their men are on the prowl for other men behind their backs.
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Did Maltatoday get the above camp photograph from some online fetish gear magazine and do they honestly believe that it's going to do the cause any favours?
