Ending DADT - The Nuclear Option

Time to deploy the "nuclear option" in the struggle to eliminate DADT.

My apologies to all who disagree with my use of military terminology but I believe it's warranted and appropriate in this situation.

THE SITUATION: President Obama has promised to end the Don't Ask, Don't Tell discriminatory policy. The president says he's waiting for congress to act, congress is waiting for military leadership to lead, and the military leadership is looking to their commander-in-chief Obama to tell them what to do. Hearings are scheduled, votes are courted and counted, committee meetings are convened, and politicians continue to declare their support for ending DADT.

THE SOLUTION: Missing from the cacophony of empty rhetoric and political promises are the voices that matter. The voices of the LGBT service members who are blackmailed into silence by regulation. In the tens of thousands these voices, unleased together, would evaporate DADT. If on every ship, on every base, in every unit, officer and enlisted, these men and women declared their identity their collective power would be felt.

Waiting for government alone to bestow your civil rights is a gamble. Montgomery in 1955 is a lesson that should not be lost. The power of change lies in the hands of the people most affected. In 1955 Black Americans, with the help of many, chose not to ride the segregated buses. Their collective power eliminated that hateful practice.

The voices of many can overcome hate.