March Forward! with pride to fight anti-LGBT oppression!
Issued for Pride Month, June 2009

End Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Now!

March Forward! is an organization of veterans and service members that stands against war, racism, sexism and anti-LGBT bigotry. We welcome LGBT veterans and service members into our ranks.

As we come together this month—the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion—to celebrate a month of pride for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, the U.S. government continues to wage a bigoted war on the LGBT community.

Though President Obama has given lip service to the LGBT community and has claimed numerous times that he will repeal the bigoted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, nothing has been done by his administration or by the Pentagon to eliminate the federal law that forces LGBT service members back into the closet and prohibits them from speaking about their sexual orientation or relationships.

A Pentagon spokesperson made it very clear that there are no plans being made for what he called any “…expected, but not articulated, anticipation that ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will be repealed.” Members of Knights Out—an organization that now represents 68 graduates from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who identify as LGBTQ—have started to be discharged.

The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy states that LGBT people in the military “create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline.” This assertion is false and merely an excuse for the military’s institutionalized bigotry. Like the old racist policies of segregation in the military, it is a denial of basic civil rights.

On March 31, Flag & General Officers for the Military delivered 1,050 handwritten signatures endorsing an open letter of bigotry and hatred. It was addressed to the president, the Pentagon, and members of Congress. The letter in part read: “We believe that imposing this burden on our men and women in uniform would undermine recruiting and retention, impact leadership at all echelons, have adverse effects on the willingness of parents who lend their sons and daughters to military service, and eventually break the All-Volunteer Force.”

The letter further states that as “a matter of national security, we urge you to support the 1993 law regarding homosexuals in the military.”

To refer to members of the LGBT community as a national security risk is not only bigoted and wrong, but also disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands of LGBT people who have been injured and killed while in the U.S. military. The idea that the “All-Volunteer Force” will break if individuals are open about their sexual orientation while in the military is absurd. To label the LGBT community as a “burden” is a slap in the face to all LGBT veterans and service members.

Fight to end discrimination against all LGBT now!

March Forward! demands an end to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and all other discriminatory measures against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and transgender individuals.

We call on veterans and service members, LGBT and straight, to stand with the entire LGBT community as we take to the streets to demand an end to the reactionary policies of the U.S. government that discriminate against LGBT people in the military.

Oppression directed at LGBT veterans and service members is intentionally promoted by the brass as barriers to rank-and-file unity. Like segregation, anti-LGBT policies can be defeated through struggle.

We stand against any policy—whether it is signed into law by politicians, voted into law through referendums, or upheld as law within courtrooms—that violates people’s basic civil rights. We stand for full LGBT equality, including the right to civil marriage.

We stand against all manifestations of bigotry inside and outside the military.

We also believe that workers, veterans and service members should oppose U.S. war.

The U.S. military—which we are told upholds freedom and democracy—has in reality been used to oppress, kill and wage campaigns of genocide against entire nations of peoples for over 230 years. The U.S. military is sent to crush popular governments around the world. We have more in common with the peoples targeted by U.S. imperialism than we will ever have with the bigots in Washington, on Wall Street and in the Pentagon.

March Forward! calls for the greatest rank-and-file unity of all workers, inside and outside of the military, in the fight against the bosses and the Pentagon brass. Unity is key to our success.

We call on all individuals within the LGBT community who have served in the U.S. military, or who currently serve, to join March Forward! as we organize and struggle to end the criminal wars and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, and as we fight back against the institutionalized racism, sexism, and anti-gay bigotry that pits people against one another.

Join us as we organize and struggle for equality, civil rights and justice for all working people, inside the military and out!

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