Justice Has No Calendar

My good buddy David Mixner, author, political strategist, and civil rights activist, has written a great piece on DADT that you should go read. Here's an excerpt:

So in the first 100 days of the Obama Administration, we most likely have seen well over 200 gay and lesbian soldiers' careers left in tatters. Their crime? Wanting to serve their country with honor and honesty and not be forced to lie to their commanders and comrades.

The Defense Secretary has indicated it could be years before it is changed. The Speaker of the House recently indicated that it won't come up this year before Congress. President Obama is just...silent. Some of our LGBT leaders are even quietly telling elected officials that we don't have to deal with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" until the wars against terrorism are over. The way things are going, that could take us into the next century.

What do we tell these brave soldiers? That their lives and careers must be sacrificed upon the altar of political convenience? America, especially its young, has come to accept that the LGBT quest for equality is a full fledged civil rights movement and not a special interest group that can be dealt with on a political timetable.

Justice has no calendar.

. . . Yet even if we look at the politics of it, there is no better time to do it than before the end of this year. We will NEVER have the kind of powerful margin in Congress that we do now. The American people, including 40% of Born Again Christians, support open and honorable service by the LGBT community. 2010 will be an election year and members of Congress will even be more nervous.

To the president, the Congress and the leaders of the LGBT community, now is the time. Ironically, it is the right time politically, it is time to stop destroying lives and it is the right thing to do morally. How often do all these factors come together? Not often; so move toward justice and repeal this hideous and unjust remnant from the 1990's. It was wrong then and it is even more wrong now because we actually can do something about this injustice.