As the enemy encroaches upon us, as they lay their traps, as they draw our blood, we stand united to resist. As they smear our names and rob our dignity, we shall fight to quell their lies and let the truth be known. No more will we let their lies rule our lives. No more will we live in darkness. And we will shine a light as bright as the Sun on those who hide the the truth. We will train our wings and take flight up in the heavens, all around the globe. We were not born to hide in a cave. We were born to sing praise to God, fight and defeat evil.- Icarus Guilder's Mantra
Today, by way of Twitter decree, there are people who can't serve their country because of who they are. Some of them will not be allowed to enter service and worse, those who are and have been serving will be discharged.
To make matters more interesting, the executive (not to be confused with the judicial) branch in charge of enforcement of laws, the Department of Justice, has released a white paper stating that protection against discrimination for being LGBQT is NOT a part of something called Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 - Meaning that you can be protected by federal law when someone discriminates you due to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, BUT the act does NOT cover discrimination for being gay or transgender.
I don't think the simultaneous release of the presidential Twitter decree and the white paper by the DoJ is a coincidence. This is a well timed preparation for a major policy change in the executive branch of the United States.
While Title VII was never explicitly written to protect people from gender / sexual orientation based discrimination, it does mean that past policies -based on Title VII - which favoured protecting LGBQT people in court cases will no longer be followed when federal agencies (e.g. FBI) are prosecuting criminals. In other words, the Justice Department and other agencies will no longer seek to punish those who injure you in any capacity simply because you are LGBQT. Crimes against an LGBQT person will still be prosecuted, but not based on allegations of discrimination as described by Title VII.
Such a cavalier interpretation of the law is a full declaration of war against the LGBQT community and will now surely pit the Judicial power against the Executive power of the United States in matters of LGBQT rights. Only the Judicial branch of the United States can protect your rights as an LGBQT person by way of a court veredict on a case by case basis. In other words, this places LGBQT people in the same category as racial minorities were prior to 1964, when there was open and legal discrimination in various aspects of society, in some States within the United States where racial segregation was legal. I guess if you are LGBQT, now is the time to decide whether you want to live in Texas or California.
Back on the subject of the military, I'm not sure an Honorable Discharge will feel so honorable to those who are being let go. The word Loyalty simply doesn't have the same weight it used to have, it seems. We can pray for better days to come, but I don't think that just asking God for help from above is enough, when you can do something yourself.
Those of you who can, try to see of you can lend a hand to any LGBQT people affected, or be of moral support to those military service members affected by these discriminatory policies. Even if it's just working by shining a light on the truth. Now is the time to see whether your prior position in society was correct or misguided, and let your heart place your allegiance on the side of truth.
Thank you for listening to my rant
JW
PS Oh. The irony: