Political Quotes

“60 years ago this Nation's Armed Forces were segregated by race. Thirty-five years ago women were not allowed to attend our Nation's military academies. Until today--in fact, last night at midnight--thousands and thousands of qualified, dedicated men and women were barred from military service or expelled from the Armed Forces because they were honest about their sexual orientation. Today I am glad to say the time has passed when Americans, willing to give their lives to defend this great Nation, could be turned away from service because of who they loved. Today, don't ask, don't tell is no longer the law of the land. For 17 years we have asked our soldiers to defend a flag that stands for liberty and justice for all, and then required some of those soldiers to keep who they were a secret. In too many cases we have robbed them of their right to fight for their country altogether. Listen to this staggering number: More than 13,000 American servicemembers have been discharged because of this law. The law has been in effect just a short period of time but more than 13,000 have been discharged because of this law which institutionalized discrimination against openly gay soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen. I say ``openly gay.'' This wasn't the case. Some were suspect. There was a long interview on Public Broadcasting this morning about a woman who was discharged at age 22 because of someone reporting they had seen her in a bar with another woman.…”