No formalwear in HS yearbook?

Kelli Davis may be able to see her classmate's photos in her Fleming Island High School yearbook, but she won't see her own. How pathetic! She's a pretty girl. The school's principal is afraid of setting a precendent -- what's wrong with a precendent of respecting human rights and practicing inclusion?

One local newspaper blurb on the story includes a quote from someone present at the school board meeting - "When uniformity is compromised, then authority no longer holds." If there wasn't enough in the news these days to frighten me, how scary it is to read that some actually have thoughts like this. Echos of Nazi Germany.

Another news story that caught my eye this week had to do with a recent report out of the government's General Accounting Office regarding the cost of the DOD's misguided "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

So sad... it makes me so very sad. When, oh when, will the world come to its senses?

Dad I'm a Lesbian; A big one.

One of the saddest things about being gay is that your biological family cannot empathize with you and often doesn't sympathize with you.

So, better than Candace Gingrich (former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's Republican Lesbian half-sister)...

Better than Mary Cheney (Vice President Dick Cheney's Republican Lesbian daughter)...

It's Maya Marcel-Keyes (Republican Senator/President hopeful Alan Keyes' Liberal Queer daughter!

One of the most beautiful expressions of God's sense of humor (and evidence that He is a teacher at heart) is that perfectly conservative and intolerant heterosexuals can bring gay children into this world.

Gays in the Military

I haven't heard much about gays in the military in the last few years. I would expect there to be a flurry of activism given that we are at war and understaffed.

Although discharges (based on the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy) have dropped in the last few years, the Army has still dismissed highly-in-demand skilled people simply because they were gay. Read this. And this.

I recently read about an appeal to Congress by active duty gay military personnel that if the US is considering reinstating the draft, to end the gay ban.

Frankly, I think that's a bit backwards. I don't believe that this country has the right to consider a draft as long as they're turning away willing able-bodied volunteers. That being said, end the ban before instituting the draft. End the ban instead of instituting the draft. End the ban because it's the right thing to do. End the ban because your two flimsy arguments (gays pose a security risk and disruption to the hetero troops) have been proven groundless by the experiential facts. American troops served with British troops without incident.

That being said, if you won't end the ban before instituting a draft, then don't you dare end the ban after. That sends a mixed message: we don't trust you if you come along voluntarily but we will trust you if we have to drag you kicking and screaming.