Alan Turing was a genius mathematician, the father of computer science, and a codebreaker for Great Britain during World War II. In 1939, he broke the German enigma codes, possibly turning the tide of the war. He was made Officer the Order of the British Empire in 1945. It came out in 1952 that he was gay. It was illegal to be gay in England at this time, so he was given two choices: imprisonment, or probation with forced chemical castration. He chose probation. Two years later, he killed himself.
This is the cost of discrimination. Brilliant minds who can offer the world so much are shunned, unable to fulfill their potential. How many of these minds has the United States lost thanks to DADT? I don't even want to think about it. More than 13,500 people have been dismissed from the military since 1993 when this law first went into effect.
But thankfully, our dumbfuck country has finally decided to follow the rest of the world into the 21st century. Gay people can be in the military now. In 2010. Yay? I hope I'm not the only one anxiously waiting to hear what Rush Limbaugh will have to say about this.
The vote was overwhelming, 65-31. To the surprise of no one, Republicans were once again the party to impede progress and equality. Only six Republicans joined the majority to repeal it (Correction: it was eight), one of whom was Mark Kirk, the Republican senator of Illinois. So that made me proud.
John McCain argued during the procedure that a policy like this should not be pushed on our troops during a time of war. Considering that we've been at war for nine years straight with no end in sight, McCain is essentially arguing that we never consider this policy ever again.
Enjoy this. I have a feeling that it's going to be a very, very, very long time until we see another progressive legislation passed in this country.
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