LGBTQ news and entertainment
The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved the defense spending bill for fiscal year 2025 today by a vote of 85-to-14, despite objections from some Democrats who opposed a provision that would deny gender-affirming care for children of military service members. Continue reading “Senate Passes Defense Bill Denying Transgender Care For Minors”
Some news items you might have missed: • CNN: A record number of ballots (252,000) have been cast in Georgia’s first day of early voting, according to Gabe Sterling of the Georgia secretary of state’s office. The previous first day record was 136,000 in 2020. Continue reading “Record 1st Day Voting In Georgia + Billy Porter Says ‘LEAP’ + More News”
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema has struck down the Pentagon’s ban on asymptomatic HIV+ people enlisting in the U.S. military calling the policy discriminatory. Continue reading “Judge Overturns Military Ban On HIV+ Enlistees”
Following an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 87-13 in the Senate, the House of Representatives approved the fiscal year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in a 310-118 vote minus anti-LGBTQ provisions House GOPers so desperately wanted. Continue reading “Congress Passes Military Spending Bill Minus Anti-LGBTQ Measures”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL)
Some news stories you might have missed: • The Advocate: Officials at the Pentagon warned on Wednesday that the current spate of anti-LGBTQ policies could potentially be damaging to the military and could impact military readiness. Continue reading “Pentagon Warns Anti-LGBTQ Policies Could Impact Military Readiness + More News”
Veterans Day is the United States public holiday observed annually on November 11 that honors all those who served in the United States Armed Forces. Continue reading “Observing Veterans Day 2021”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has ordered mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 for all active-duty and reserve Armed Forces service members. Continue reading “Pentagon Orders COVID Vaccinations For All U.S. Troops”
(image: public domain/WhiteHouse/Flickr)
As former secretaries of defense, we hold a common view of the solemn obligations of the U.S. armed forces and the Defense Department. Each of us swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We did not swear it to an individual or a party.
American elections and the peaceful transfers of power that result are hallmarks of our democracy. With one singular and tragic exception that cost the lives of more Americans than all of our other wars combined, the United States has had an unbroken record of such transitions since 1789, including in times of partisan strife, war, epidemics and economic depression. This year should be no exception.
Our elections have occurred. Recounts and audits have been conducted. Appropriate challenges have been addressed by the courts. Governors have certified the results. And the electoral college has voted. The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived.
Read the full op-ed at the Washington Post.
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| Mayor Pete Buttigieg (images via social media) |
Political news site The Hill has obtained military documents that offer some insight into Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s time spent in Afghanistan as a Navy intelligence officer.
Buttigieg has mentioned on the campaign trail he took a seven month leave during his first term as mayor to serve in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom launched by President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
According to The Hill, the documents show the then-32-year-old served in the Afghanistan Threat Finance Cell (ATFC) in Kabul from March to September of 2014. The files indicate that assignment put him in “an imminent danger pay area.”
The focus of the ATFC was to identify and disrupt “insurgent financial support networks in Afghanistan” related to the Taliban and Al-Qaida.
The Hillreports his duties included representing ATFC at “high level briefings, and he also “coordinated intelligence sharing and targeting deconfliction” methods with several organizations.
As Buttigieg mentioned in his book Shortest Way Home, he imagined he would spend most of his time in Afghanistan “behind a sophisticated computer terminal in a secure area.” But it turned out he had to venture some 119 times “outside the wire,” which meant leaving his fairly secure base. During those trips into Kabul, he served as vehicle commander on convoy security detail.
While he’s never claimed to have engaged in direct combat, Buttigieg did describe in his book the dangers unpredictable Kabul neighborhoods could present.
“In a ritual to be repeated dozens of times, I would heave my armored torso into the driver’s seat of a Land Cruiser, chamber a round in my M4, lock the doors and wave a gloved goodbye to the Macedonian gate guard,” wrote Buttigieg.
“My vehicle would cross outside the wire and into the boisterous Afghan city, entering a world infinitely more interesting and ordinary and dangerous than our zone behind the blast walls at ISAF headquarters,” he added.
Even in an armored vehicle, he was trained to be on the lookout for possible explosive devices hidden along the roads, or a number of telltale signs of a surprise ambush around any corner. “A suddenly empty neighborhood. A nervous-looking lone driver of a vehicle with a heavy trunk load. An obviously male hand coming out from underneath a woman’s blue burqa.”
Mayor Pete is one of the few Democratic presidential candidates whose resume includes active duty military experience.
Donald Trump did not serve in the military due to reported ‘bone spurs’in his feet.