Mr. McCain:
I feel like I should just call you “John” because we have some level of familiarity. I left you a nice message last week on Constitution Day. Did you listen to it? Have you read my tweets?
And after all, you’ve been to the place I call home. You were the fellow who spoke at our commencement this past year here at Ohio Wesleyan. It was a nice speech, very empowering. As a matter of fact, you quoted Winston Churchill when you said “defeat is never fatal. Victory is never final. It’s courage that counts.”
So given your recent threat to filibuster during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” hearings on the Senate floor and the overwhelmingly Republican vote Tuesday to block discussion of DADT repeal, I wonder. Is the defeat for gay rights advocates everywhere fatal? Is your victory final? And whose courage counted?
I am also wondering why a war veteran and distinguished politician and community service advocate such as yourself would balk in front of reporters after the Senate hearings. Two of them were from The Advocate and Metro Weekly, two of the LGBT community’s prime news sources. They confronted you and you shied away.
How could you sit in front of reporters and claim the military does not actively seek to find out someone’s sexual orientation? How could you claim private e-mails of military members have never been searched? “Bring them to our office,” you said. “It is not the policy, it is not the policy, it is not the policy.”
It may not be the written policy, Senator, but you know it’s true. You’ve heard of Major Mike Almy, a 13-year veteran of the Air Force, who was relieved of his duties after a routine search of computer files uncovered emails to his same-sex partner. Almy explained what happened in a testimony before the Senate Armed Services committee…your own committee! So how can you sit there and lie?
Furthermore, how can you defend such a discriminatory policy? Even if you are waiting for the survey from the Pentagon about the opinion of service members on the repeal, you should know. You should understand and you should be able to tell that this policy never should have been implemented in the first place. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says it’s ridiculous. Barack Obama wants to repeal it. Defense secretary Robert Gates thinks it’s outdated. The House of Representatives voted it unconstitutional. What other evidence do you need? Why are you playing politics with people’s lives?
I find it hard to imagine that if a gay soldier had saved your life in Vietnam, you would have denied him and waited for the next straight guy to come along. I also find it hard to imagine that the 13,000 LGBT soldiers who have been “honorably” discharged since 1993 really had a negative effect on their companies. I’m sure they didn’t enlist to get some action (and I don’t mean on the battlefield). Is that why you enlisted?
For the life of me, I can’t even imagine why LGBT people would want to serve in the first place. Why would someone enlist in the military knowing this policy is in place, knowing their rights will be surrendered and their personal lives destroyed if someone finds out, knowing they will be kicked out and their pay cut?
Maybe because, for some unknown reason, they love the country that denies them their basic rights. Maybe because they want to serve and fight and protect the freedoms they hope they have some day. Maybe because they bleed red just like everyone else.
Maybe we should fight homophobia instead of homosexuals.
You could help if you stopped hiding behind your lies and whatever principles you are trying to uphold here. Look beyond what your party wants and start supporting what’s right.
Sincerely,
Michelle Rotuno-Johnson
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