Last fall the nation held its breath as the U.S. Government finally accepted all of our gay and lesbian troops.

Just hours after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was repealed, U.S. airman Randy Phillips, a 21-year-old gay member of the Air Force stationed in Germany, videotaped a phone call he made to his father and posted it on YouTube- nervous and exhausted, in his bedroom with a map of the world behind him, Randy told his dad that he was gay.

NOTE: THis podcast is available for download until Sunday Feb 4th, 2012 and made possible by the financial support of listeners like you. Upgrade your account to Feast of Fun Plus + and have access to all our award winning podcast.

The internet and the rest of the world fell in love with the raw emotion of Randy’s live coming out. The video reflected the relief felt by many as the discriminatory era of DADT came to an end. He later followed it up with a video coming out to his mother.

Identical cousins? Fausto and Randy do look a bit like each other.

Both videos became such sensations that we made our own video, Gay Soldier Comes Out to Pizza Man-LIVE, because we thought “Who is he going to come out to next?” How about the pizza guy?

Minutes after posting our parody, Randy tweeted to his followers “This is the best thing I have ever seen…I hope you get a billion views.” All of these videos have now gone viral.

Today we’re talking to Randy Phillips from his town home in Germany about what life is like after the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, were there any gay military parties and does he now have a boyfriend?

Listen as we ask Randy if he was worried that his coming out videos could have backfired.

What if his mom and dad rejected him?

How to look good in lederhosen.

And Randy has some new shirtless workout and cooking videos that take us from his frying pan and into the fire. Feel the burn!

Featured Music:
Lover (Music Video Edit) – Single – Tom Goss: iTunes

A lot has happened since then, Randy is busy cultivating a following as a video blogger and been covering the topics of tolerance, identity, food and fitness. It seems Randy is looking and doing great.

Ask him anything!

Post your questions below, the best ones will be asked to Randy on the show.

– The podcast will be available tomorrow for premium subscribers. To listen for free for the first month, use the coupon code “GLITTER” when updating your Feast of Fun account.

BEFORE COMING OUT

COMING OUT TO DAD

WORK OUT VIDEO

Coco Peru - Photos by Peter Palladino, David Charpentier

Go see Coco Peru's show.

We had an awesome time last summer hanging out with Coco Peru, the star of such loved campy films as Trick and Girls Will Be Girls. All throughout the weekend, everybody wondered why she kept saying that people always tell her “she’s a very nice person.” Is Coco Peru really a very nice person or is she trying to put us under her drag-notic spell?

Join us today as we talk with the hilarious Coco Peru. Coco’s put together a brand new one woman show, “There Comes a Time” where she looks back at 20 years of being a drag queen entertainer and gives us a peek into her future.

Listen as we talk with Coco about her shocking near death experience as a teenager, before he came out to his parents, the impact of reality TV shows on solo performers, the power of dragnosis and why there will be so many puking scenes in Girls Will Be Girls 2012.

Plus–

Caution Exotic Animals- a man sets a zoo of wild animals loose and then kills himself.

Michelle Bachman’s insane, nautical themed fashion.

And our spoof video “A Gay Soldier Comes Out to the Pizza Man – LIVE” goes viral, leaving some confused people wondering why is Randy Phillips ordering a pizza all the way to Afghanistan?

[Originally posted on 10.20.11 to Feast of Fun Plus+, sign up today!]

Featured Music:
A Diferent Shade of Faded – Orison – Orison: iTunes

The internet is in love with Randy Philips, the soldier stationed overseas who famously came out to his dad and mom, live on YouTube. We figured since Randy’s video has been such a hit with over 3 million views, it was ripe for a parody/tribute from us.

This video is dedicated to Randy Phillips, the gay solider who came out to his mom and dad, days after DADT was repealed. Thanks for coming out. You’re making the world a better place for your bravery and service to our country.

We hope this video gets his attention and we can get him on the show.

Update! Randy gave it a thumbs up, saying it’s the “best thing he’s ever seen.” (Blush.)

A soldier serving in Iraq asked Santorum at a debate about the repeal of DADT and the audience booed the soldier for being gay. Santorum’s response was to call the repeal of DADT a social experiment and that sexual activity has no place in the military.

ABC interviewed the airmen that recorded his life under DADT and came out to his father on Youtube. The airmen sure seemed a whole lot more relaxed!

Pretty moving! Soldier @areyousurprised comes out to his father in Alabama after the repeal of DADT.

You may have seen his previous videos where he talks about being in the military while shielding his identity.

via

DADT may be repealed this month, but the Army is still “straight acting.”

The line between gay military recruitment ads and fetish videos will inevitably be blurred.

Today President Obama formally signed off on edting the bans on gays serving open in the U.S. military, doing away with the controversial policy and making good on his campaign promise. Yes we can indeed!

President Obama:

“As commander in chief, I have always been confident that our dedicated men and women in uniform would transition to a new policy in an orderly manner that preserves unit cohesion, recruitment, retention and military effectiveness.”

The signed notice (signed by the President, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Admiral Mike Mullen) will be sent to Congrss certifying the military is ready for it, and that repealing the 17 year old ban “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” wont hurt anyone, except homophobe’s fragile egos.

Effectively the ban will be lifted in 60 days, on Tuesday, September 20. You can bet that the Village People’s “In the Navy” song will be played everywhere and might even get used in a recruitment ad campaign.

Village People – In the navy (version originale) by scorpiomusic

– Read more.

The title dates way back to WWI and is given to certain women who entertain and inspire the troops.

Can you imagine this happening in the US? Maybe this is our bright and glittery future now that DADT is repealed. RuPaul, break out that coconut bra and grass skirt, because we know Lady Bunny won’t be invited to perform anytime soon.

Phil, burnt out from the semester

Hey kids, I’m back!

Sorry I went missing there–rough end-of-semester.  Now its done, and I’m back again ready to bring you all the Illinois and national LGBT political news!

So… anything interesting happen while I was gone?

President Obama is popular with the gays. File photo of the President at a 4th of July picnic.

According to a poll in October of 2010, 64% of people who identified as LGBT said they approved or strongly approved of the way Obama was handling his job. Considering the vast majority of LGBT people identify as Democrats, 64% approval is kind of lousy.

From HuffPo:

The poll numbers, which had not been previously released, were sent to The Huffington Post on the condition that the full survey not be published. The high-ranking LBGT operative who passed the numbers along cited them as evidence that the gay community was not disaffected with the president prior to November’s midterm elections and that they would not lose patience with Obama even if he fails to persuade Congress to move major agenda items in the years ahead.

“The research is very current and my guess is, if anything, the numbers will be better now that DADT was repealed, not worse,” the operative said.

I’m not sure if there is more to this poll. I think 25% of gays in the last election voted Republican, don’t ask me why.

Vice President Joe Biden introduces President Obama on this historic day of the repeal of DADT. If you want to skip all the political rhetoric, Obama signs the bill 24:29. I kind of wish he parachuted in with a big banner saying “Mission Accomplished.”

Even thought the top brass in the military still have to approve the repeal of Don’t Ask Dont’ Tell, the ban is as good as gone. The USA is just months away from having a military that allows gay and lesbian service members to be out with pride.

Many politicians and celebrities are rushing out to claim credit for the repeal, but who can claim the fame? Dan Choi? HRC? Bloggers? President Obama? Lady Gaga? The Internet?

It’s only a matter of time before we see military recruitment ads in gay bars or community centers, featuring the Village People’s In the Navy.

Join us today as we take a look at the impact same gender loving folks will have on the military and what impact the military will have on us.

What you don't know is that Barbara is sitting above an underground village.

Barbara Streisand’s new book “My Passion for Design,” takes you on a never before seen tour of her lavish home, including the tiny cobblestone village built in her basement.

A Brazilian wedding ends in gruesome deaths.

Bishop Eddie Long may be under investigation from the Feds over mortage fraud.

The hypnotic power of bacon and caramel popcorn.

And a real life 101 Dalmatians- a dog in germany gives birth to 17 puppies!

Featured Music:
Gilli Moon – Merry Christmas My Love: iTunes

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Below is a reply I wrote to someone who questioned my assertion that the Democrats were largely to blame for DADT passage in 1993.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thanks for your note about my DADT comment.  I remember very well how DADT went down back in 1993, but for the sake of brevity, I couldn’t go into it in my comment.

While you’re right that the Republicans also were disgusting in that affair, the Democrats were if anything more culpable for this anti-gay attack, because they were the ones who held almost all of the reins of power.  And the more you dig into the details about how DADT actually went down, the worse they look.

While it may seem logical to presume that it was the Republicans who led the charge on DADT, it was actually Democrats, led by Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA) who first launched the furor over “gays in the military.”  It is very important to note that back in 2003, like in early 2009, Congressional Republicans were in minorities in both houses, in the political wilderness with seemingly no power to do anything.

In response to Nunn’s Fall 1992 onslaught, the White House went virtually mute.  During the primaries and general election, the Clinton campaign had become renowned for its 24-hours-a-day message response team, which many credited with being key to his winning the Democratic nomination (for example, it saved his political life when they promptly responded to a Clinton sex scandal on the eve of the New Hampshire primary, for example).  So the muted response by Clinton on “gays in the military” was decidedly uncharacteristic.  It showed that the President-elect was not willing to spend not even a dime’s worth of political capital on LGBTs.  Very reminiscent of the current White House.

Back in 1992-93, David Mixner was the most prominent LGBT “Friend of Bill” (Clinton), as members of the President’s kitchen cabinet were known back then.  In the Fall of 1992, Mixner used his bully pulpit as the President-elect’s leading LGBT ally to repeatedly urge the LGBT community to keep quiet about the Clinton’s lack of response to Nunn.  The current President, by contrast, doesn’t do much better.  Out of one side of Obama’s mouth, he says that he wants LGBTs and others in his base to keep up pressure on him, but out of the other side of his mouth he has his spokespeople calling us “idiots” and basically wishes we would go away.

After Nunn initiated the attack on “gays in the military,” the Republican minority smelled blood.  They took the ball from Nunn and ran with it.  Day after day they launched ever more hysterical attacks on “gays in the military,” while our side kept silent.  The result of this one-sided propaganda campaign was that the polls went from being modestly in our favor on the issue, to swinging widely against us.  The “anti-gays in the military” campaign later broadened into what became known as the “Republican Revolution,” with the Democrats getting whipped in the 1994 bi-election and the Democrats accommodating with the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (passage of which Clinton bragged about in commercials he ran on Christian right radio stations).

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.  By the Spring of 1993 the Democratic Party, roundly being beaten up in the press by the “gays in the military” furor, was desperate for a way out of the issue.  So just a week before that year’s Lesbian and Gay march on Washington, Clinton’s Secretary of Defense, Les Aspin, floated in the Saturday New York Times a proposal to allow gays in the military – so long as they were segregated into gays-only units!  While implementation of this proposal would have provided fertile fodder for a whole new genre of porn videos, the notion that any late-20th century mainstream politician would countenance segregation in any form was insulting to say the least.

For any LGBTs willing to take their pro-Democratic Party blinders off, Aspin’s bizarre proposal should have been a clear signal as to what direction the administration was going on the issue.  Yet a week later at the march on Washington, almost no one took on the President (to his credit, Larry Kramer made at least a disjointed, confused critique of Clinton, even though as I’ve written elsewhere, Clinton’s anti-gay record in Arkansas was quite extensive).  Instead, speaker after speaker urged LGBTs to stand behind their President, with the result that all of the pressure on Clinton continued to come only from the right.  Our defeat on the issue was a slow-moving train-wreck that most LGBTs should have seen coming, but few did.

The face-saving measure that the Clinton administration eventually came up with was of course, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a legislative act which enshrined discrimination into law (previously it had simply been a matter of military regulations) and led to a huge jump in anti-Lesbian and Gay purges over the previous policy.

Finally, it should be noted that a pivotal event in ending the first Republican Revolution wasn’t anything that you can thank the Democrats for.  Following the 1998 lynching of Wyoming’s Matthew Shepard, LGBTs and our allies flooded into the streets in cities around the country.  In Chicago alone I recall there were at least six Matthew Shepard marches and vigils within the first month after his murder.  This widespread, spontaneous revulsion against homophobia and anyone, like the Republicans, who seemed to give aid and comfort to violent homophobia, played a key role in dethroning Newt Gingrich, et al.

Now that we are facing a second Republican Revolution, this history provides some important pointers to how we can defeat Sarah Palin, the Tea Partiers, et al.

Andy Thayer

Finally, to talk only about DADT repeal in the narrow context of LGBT rights and ignore the devastating impact of the U.S. military on the peoples of the world would be arrogance in the extreme.  There are over 1000 American military bases outside of the U.S., mostly in countries whose peoples don’t want them there, helping prop up scores of U.S.-allied thugs who are widely hated by those they rule over.

For those naive enough to persist in thinking that American troops are abroad to “serve” — there to help other peoples or to “defend our freedom,” I need only point to the Wikileaks revelations.   The U.S. is responsible for half the world’s military spending – that’s not defense, that’s empire.

Stacked up against the continuing enormous waste of lives and resources caused by the American military, the injustice of DADT paled by comparison.  I don’t expect HRC or the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network to ever depart from their myopic “rights-for-gays-only” approach.  But to the vast majority of LGBT people who identify with neither of those groups, I would say this:  If you want solidarity from non-LGBT people for our struggles, such as in referenda campaigns (which we’ve uniformly lost over the past few decades), then we cannot fail to give solidarity to the justice struggles of “others,” many of whom are themselves LGBT.

Andy Thayer
Co-founder, Gay Liberation Network

Join the Gay Army. Great parades, no war.

Today the Senate voted 63-33 on Saturday to end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, defeating a 17-year policy of banning gay and lesbian service members from serving openly in the military.

President Obama responded immediately:

No longer will our nation be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans forced to leave the military, despite years of exemplary performance, because they happen to be gay. And no longer will many thousands more be asked to live a lie in order to serve the country they love.

It also makes good financial sense, as discharging troops under the Pentagon’s policy on gays cost $363.8 million over 10 years, according to one study at West Point Military Academy.

Also, the military knew that it was just a matter of time before the courts repealed it, and wanted to have some control over the matter instead of having the repeal happen overnight.

Five Republicans crossed the aisle to vote in support of Equality: Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio).

Tragically some Democratic Senators voted against military service members, not to mention Mean Old Man Senator John McCain.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV, opposed repeal, arguing that the policy “probably should be repealed in the near future,” but not now because of “the effect implementation would have on our front line combat troops at this time.”

The Senate vote is a vindication of Obama’s decision to push for congressional repeal as opposed to unilateral executive action, but obviously the President could have done both.

No thanks to Log Cabin Republicans, who worked hard to put politicians in office who were in support of the ban and to representatives who were in support of LGBT Equality.

I came out in 1989 and for me as a gay man living under President Clinton, the passage of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was terribly disappointing. It was in essence asking peolpe who put their lives in service to hide their loved ones and their families.

We can finally move on.

Hopefully Dan Choi can get a little relief and celebrate this holiday season. Hopefully Bradley Manning will get the news, despite being in solitary isolation for almost a year, for trying to expose corruption in our government.

Thanks Dan. Happy Holidays!

The point of formal wear is to make everyone look good, but for some people, wearing a gender specific outfit makes their skin crawl.

Our comedian friend Cameron Esposito recently took a lipstick bullet and femmed it up for her sister’s wedding, with hilarious results.

Today, Cameron joins us to talk about hosting a burlesque show, life in the circus and her Nancy Drew like experience of discovering her friend’s secret sex dungeon.

How will the White House top last year's ginormous AIDS Ribbon this year?

The goal is to raise a million dollars to bring the celebs back from the dead but how much to keep Kim Karsashian from ever going back on Twitter again?

It’s also the first day to vote for Feast of Fun in the 2010 People’s Choice Podcast Awards in the “Best GLBT” category and the top prize of the “People’s Choice.” We can’t win without your help. Thank you!

Mariah Carey has nothing on pop singer Erika Jayne who posed for her CD cover with a rhinestone covered .44 Magnum gun. Photo: Marco Bollinger

Good News Everyone! Civil Union legislation in Illinois passes the first hurdle.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? Don’t Care! The Pentagon’s much anticipated official official report finds the overwhelming majority of active service people don’t mind if the ban on gays serving openly is lifted.

Beer for Dogs

Designer Sneakers for Facebook junkies.

And for the lesbian who has everything, get her a pair of Teva stiletto heels with velcro straps for the holidays, perfect for going from mountain climbing straight to the red carpet.

Featured Music:
One Hot Pleasure – Erika Jayne: iTunes

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Little Monsters, Lady Gaga hears your screams! Lady Gaga feels that the government is creating an atmosphere that is killing our children and she needs you to help her put a stop to this madness.

Keep up to date on all things DADT with the Repeal DADT iPhone app.

Watch the video.

John McCain locked her in a cage, took away all access to technology, sewed her mouth shut and–when all else failed–tranquilized her with heavy-duty animal tranq, usually reserved for elephants. All to try to control her and quiet her because she just loves the gays so much.

Or so you would have thought from the LGBT community when Cindy McCain tweeted a retraction of her NoH8 video which seemed to indicate her support of repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’

“I fully support the NOH8 campaign and all it stands for and am proud to be a part of it. But I stand by my husband’s stance on DADT.”

That’s a huge 180 from the Senator’s wife in this ‘NoH8′ video released earlier in the week:

I was skeptical from the get go, before the Twitter flip-flop showed up. I honestly do not enjoy being right about something so sad. However, the reaction from other LGBT activists I know was stunning.

“Either you are right and it’s all strategic manipulation in an effort to gain votes. Or she really believes in different policies than her husband, but… she spoke out a little too loudly and Mccain and the GOP have scrambled to reel her in. She comes from a background where the wife obeys the husband, so her words today may be what she was told to say, not what she believes.”

“I think the more likely explanation is that she meant it and her brute of a husband yelled at her.”

These were just two justifications posted on my facebook page alone. I’ve read countless other responses where LGBT activists are apologizing for Cindy’s Jekyll and Hyde act. The general consensus: “John must have made her tweet that.”

I don’t profess to know what goes on in the McCain household when the media isn’t watching. But I do know one thing, neither can you.

Rather than call her on her two-faced retreat, LGBT activists, so desperate to hold onto any celebrity affirmation, especially one seemingly so politically novel, have been making every excuse for Cindy McCain’s deception in the book.

But why? Why do we have to apologize for her? We don’t owe that to her.

There are a lot of Republicans I respect, actually. Republicans like Judy Biggert, an US House member from Illinois who has stood firm in her pro-LGBT stances for years and does not shy away from breaking from her party on controversial votes. Judy Biggert spoke volumes when she voted to repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’

Cindy McCain can’t cast a vote in Congress on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ The only power she has to affect change on this discriminatory law is her voice, and she’s instead used it to muddy the waters and create confusion–and LGBT activists are far too eager to offer her political cover in the form of speculation and assumption.

We don’t owe Cindy McCain that. If anyone owes anyone anything, Cindy McCain owes us an explanation for her two-faced treachery.

As a community, we must drop the battered wife act. We can accept an ally who is only an ally in name and not in deed. We can’t make excuses for fair-weather friends who drop us at the drop of a hat.

The LGBT community has an abusive relationship with Cindy McCain, and its time that we said goodbye.

A friend in Australia sent this to me!

Critics claimed I was out of my mind for sharing pertinent and relevant public information about an LGBT-interest story on an LGBT blog, because, well, they hadn’t felt as if they’d heard enough about OutServe after my post had gone live.

Well, not five days later, we learn that OutServe has indeed been busy.

Check out this press release I just received:

“FRUSTRATED WITH DADT LIMBO, ACTIVE DUTY GAYS FLOCK TO UNDERGROUND NETWORK

OutServe Numbers Double in October; DC Office Established

WASHINGTON, DC, November 4, 2010 – With tremendous uncertainty around the future of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, OutServe, the network of actively serving LGBT military personnel, doubled in size in October. The organization now stands at well over seven-hundred active-duty military gays and lesbians, with 25 chapters worldwide including Iraq and Afghanistan. The specific chapter locations are known only within the exclusive network. All actively serving military members can freely communicate with each other and real identities are used within the network.

“We expected the network to grow slowly, since we only all actively serving members to join – but the events of the past month or so have really galvanized gay officers and troops throughout the military, and we are growing at an unprecedented rate,” said the organization’s active-duty co-director, who goes by the pseudonym JD Smith. “Our members, as well as their straight active-duty friends, are fed up with the back-and-forth on a policy that we all know is pointless and bad for the force.”

“We know that DADT is still in place, but it’s hard for the soldier on the ground to follow the news of court decisions, injunctions, and stays, not to mention Senate filibusters,” said spokesman and former Infantry Captain Jonathan Hopkins. “For the most part, troops don’t care one way or another who’s gay, but everyone is ready for this issue to be resolved. And I think we all know that it will only be resolved when the law is changed and the policy goes away.”

With the intensity of the DADT issue rising, OutServe last week established a formal presence inWashington, DC. Hopkins, a veteran of combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, will be representing OutServe as the active-duty group’s public contact in the nation’s capital. This will provide the active-duty network a direct voice in the discussions occurring in Washington.”

Sour grapes gripers will, of course, say “There’s no proof! They’re secret!” to which everyone else grounded in reality will respond: “DUH! They’d loose their jobs if they were outed!”

In fact, OutServe has skirted the traditional definition of ‘secret’ with frequent appearances in the New York Times, The AP, Newsweek, Michelangelo Signorile’s popular Sirius satellite radio show, my podcast, SameSexSunday, and most recently right on Rachel Maddow (blurred by shadowing, of course, to protect identities). OutServe is appropriately cautious, but definitely quite bold as well.

Congratulations, OutServe on making your mark!

The debate, which was co-moderated by former Clinton adviser George Stephanopoulos showed a stark difference in ideology between the pair. Despite Kirk’s membership in the armed forces, his views on the discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy come from Republican talking points, rather than the statements of Defense Secretary Gates and other leaders in the military in favor of Congressional repeal. Rep. John Boehner never served in the military, and we truly mustn’t trust his judgment over Secretary Gates and Admiral Mullen, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Yet its clear who Kirk–a decorated Navy vet–is taking his orders from now.

Bottom line: Giannoulias clearly supports the full platform of LGBT equality, and Kirk doesn’t. We hope he’ll push equality hard on the hill–as hard as Senator Burris did in his short time–and he’ll surely be there to co-sponsor LGBT equality bills and be present for the votes at the right time.

Dan Choi couldn’t join the marines because he was too old but he was able to make it into the Army. Looks like DADT is over. Now Congress has to repeal it, but will they do it quietly or will the blowhards still be heard?

Here’s a great write up with photos.

Rachel Maddow tries to make sense of where we are at with DADT.

“Barring a stay by a higher court, the injunction suspends all investigations and prevents all discharges under the policy. However, Log Cabin Republicans urges caution by servicemembers considering coming out at this time, as the Obama administration still has the option to appeal.”

Stating that the policy violated the First and Fifth Amendments to the US Constitution, the Judge’s decision was stern in its admonishing of the Department of Defense and the Government:

Phillips ruled that the law intruded on service members’ privacy, autonomy and freedom of expression, and that the government had failed to substantiate its claim that excluding openly gay troops promotes military effectiveness or unit cohesion.

She said expert testimony and studies from other nations with different policies found no evidence that allowing gays to serve reduced military effectiveness.

Phillips also said the Pentagon had undermined the government’s position by delaying the discharge proceedings of acknowledged gays and lesbians while they were in combat zones, then seeking to remove them when they returned.

According to the Associated Press, “U.S. Department of Justice attorneys have 60 days to appeal, but legal experts say they could let the ruling stand.”

The Log Cabin Republicans let their feelings be known in this emphatic statement: “These soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coast guardsmen sacrifice so much in defense of our nation and our Constitution,” said Christian Berle, Deputy Executive Director of Log Cabin Republicans.

“It is imperative that their constitutional freedoms be protected as well. This decision is also a victory for all who support a strong national defense. No longer will our military be compelled to discharge servicemembers with valuable skills and experience because of an archaic policy mandating irrational discrimination. The United States is stronger because of this injunction, and Log Cabin Republicans is proud to have brought the case that made it possible.”

Here in Illinois, our very own Alexi Giannoulias was quick to respond, as well:

“I have been calling for an immediate repeal of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy for more than a year. Today’s decision confirms what we have always known — this policy is discriminatory and unconstitutional. This is one of the issues where Congressman Kirk and I fundamentally disagree: I think brave men and women who want to defend our country should be allowed to serve, while he is eager to kick them out based on their sexual orientation. Illinois voters want a Senator who will go to Washington and end this immoral and ineffective practice permanently through legislative action.”

So is this the end of DADT?

Many of you are now asking, “is it over?”

Nope.

Like all the cases crawling their way up to the Supreme Court, the Government can ask the 9th Circuit Court to impose a ‘stay’ on the injunction; which is the legal world’s pause button. If a stay is issued, then the injunction couldn’t be enforced. In other words, Judge Phillips says that discharges must stop now, but if her ruling is stayed, then discharges must continue. So if you’re in the service, and you’re reading this–put down that Pride Flag! If you come out today, and the injunction is stayed tomorrow, you’ll be in a room chatting with investigators a few hours after that.

How likely is the 9th Circuit to stay the injunction? Well, they did it to Judge Walker’s decision striking down Prop 8, just a few months ago. Bad habits are the hardest to break: when it comes to letting gays live and let live, courts are reluctant to let that happen without giving the possibility of giving us rights guaranteed in the Constitution a THOROUGH look-over.

Don’t want to go crazy and give us the rights of an American Citizen by mistake unless we’re absolutely sure, do we?

In other news, the LGBT political community may have something other than DADT to talk about at some time this week. Not like anything else big happened last week. Nope.