Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyOctober 20th, 2010
The Justice Department today has filed an emergency request with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, asking that the court issues a stay of U.S. Federal District Judge Virginia A. Phillips’ injunction preventing the Defense Department from enforcing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
In today’s filing (PDF: 156 KB/25 pages, via Politico), the Justice Department argues that “if not stayed immediately, the district court’s order precludes the administration of an Act of Congress and risks causing significant immediate harm to the military and its efforts to be prepared to implement an orderly repeal of the statute.” The Justice Department then asks:
We respectfully request that the Court enter an administrative stay by today October 20, 2010, pending this Court’s resolution of the government’s motion for a stay pending appeal, which would maintain the status quo that prevailed before the district court’s decision while the Court considers the government’s stay motion.
In giving the reasons for requesting the stay, the Justice Department repeats the reasons they gave to the District Court, except this time they chose to omit the “evidence” of the Rolling Stone interview with President Barack Obama, which Judge Phillips derisively dismissed as “hearsay.” The Justice Department argues:
The worldwide injunction also threatens to disrupt the ongoing efforts to fashion and implement policies to effect any repeal of § 654 in an orderly fashion. The President strongly supports repeal of the statute that the district court has found unconstitutional, a position shared by the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Although the Administration has called for a repeal of the statute, it has made clear that repeal should not occur without needed deliberation, advance planning, and training. To that end, the Secretary of Defense established the Comprehensive Review Working Group, which is currently nearing completion of a comprehensive review of how best to implement a repeal of § 654. The Working Group has visited numerous military installations across the country and overseas, where it has interacted with tens of thousands of servicemembers on this issue. The Working Group has also conducted an extensive, professionally developed survey that was distributed to a representative sample of approximately 400,000 servicemembers. An abrupt, court-ordered end to the statute would pretermit the Working Group’s efforts to ensure that the military completes development of the necessary policies and regulations for a successful and orderly implementation of any repeal of § 654. The significant impairment of the Department’s efforts to devise an orderly end to the statute would cause irreparable harm.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has complied with the injunction barring enforcement of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Former New York Guardsman Lt. Dan Choi yesterday successfully re-enlisted in the U.S. Army at a recruiting station in New York, while the Pentagon has announced that they have called a halt to all ongoing discharge procedures underway under DADT.
Karen Ocamb puts it nicely:
Obama, the DOJ and the Pentagon should acknowledge that DADT is broken and unfixable like Humpty Dumpty.
Latest Posts
Featured Reports
In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.
When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.
In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.
On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Part 3: A Whole New Dialect
Part 4: It Depends On How The Meaning of the Word "Change" Changes
Part 5: A Candid Explanation For "Change"
At last, the truth can now be told.
Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!
And don‘t miss our companion report, How To Write An Anti-Gay Tract In Fifteen Easy Steps.
Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.
Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.
Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.
The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.
“Google” is a trademark of Google Inc.
© Box Turtle Bulletin. All Rights Reserved.
Posts 
Posts via daily email:
Matt
October 20th, 2010
It should be telling that the military itself is now in the process of ending DADT while the government continues to push for hanging onto it, for some unfathomable reason. I guess Obama wants more time to “study” the issue, and yet the military seems to have reached the conclusion that they don’t need to anymore.
Aaron
October 20th, 2010
Well, the military is doing what the federal government is commanding it to.
I find it fascinating that the President feels that he has a responsibility to fight this, despite how weak the presidency is going to look as it struggles to undo what this judge has done. The President is the Commander in Chief of the military and this is making it look as if that office is powerless. He should have just given an executive order to end DADT. He could have even tailored it to come into effect in increments so that the policy would be dismantled in the “orderly fashion” that they seem to think is so important.
Pliny
October 20th, 2010
I didn’t realize the constitution had an exception for “orderly repeal” of unconstitutional acts.
R
October 20th, 2010
DADT was broken before the ruling. Most people don’t support it. Many servicemembers know someone who is serving who is GLBT. Nobody cares who is gay or not. Somehow everyone isn’t being sexually assaulted in the shower despite that. The group most likely to be sexually assaulted in the military is women, not men, and DADT’s repeal won’t change that.
Rob San Diego
October 20th, 2010
I love how the administration wants to leave this to congress to undo. As if congress will still be in the Democrats control after the election.
Leave A Comment