General Amos: Military Embracing DADT Repeal

[Political Junky]

General James F. Amos has said that, two months after lifting the ban on openly gay service personnel known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT), the military appears to be embracing the change and that he is “very pleased with how it’s gone.”

Amos, who stridently argued against a repeal during wartime, told the Associated Press in a recent interview that he is unaware of a single incident where there has been a problem since the repeal, and only one false alarm has been filed since the appeal took effect. Amos, commenting during a week-long trip that included four days in Afghanistan, went on to tell an anecdote which involved his wife meeting an out member of the armed forces.

From the AP:

In the AP interview, he offered an anecdote to make his point. He said that at the annual ball in Washington earlier this month celebrating the birth of the Marine Corps, a female Marine approached Amos’s wife, Bonnie, and introduced herself and her lesbian partner.

“Bonnie just looked at them and said, ‘Happy birthday ball. This is great. Nice to meet you,’” Amos said. “That is happening throughout the Marine Corps.”

Read more: General Amos: Military Embracing DADT Repeal | Care2 Causes

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says den dey gonna legalize polygamy an' den dey gonna legalize Hispexicans marryin' white womens...

Senate Poised to Legalize Sodomy and Bestiality in U.S. Military
December 1, 2011 – The Senate this evening is poised to vote on a defense authorization bill that includes a provision which not only repeals the military law on sodomy, but also repeals the military ban on sex with animals--or bestiality.

On Nov. 15, the Senate Armed Services Committee unanimously approved S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision to repeal Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Article 125 of the UCMJ makes it illegal to engage in both sodomy with humans and sex with animals. It states: "(a) Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense. (b) Any person found guilty of sodomy shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said the effort to remove sodomy from military law stems from liberal Senate Democrats' and President Obama’s support for removing the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. “It’s all about using the military to advance this administration’s radical social agenda,” Perkins told CNSNews.com. “Not only did they overturn Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, but they had another problem, and that is, under military law sodomy is illegal, just as adultery is illegal, so they had to remove that prohibition against sodomy.” Perkins said removing the bestiality provision may have been intentional--or just “collateral damage”

“Well, whether it was inadvertent or not, they have also taken out the provision against bestiality,” he said. “So now, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), there’s nothing there to prosecute bestiality." Former Army Col. Bob Maginnis said some military lawyers have indicated that bestiality may be prosecutable under another section of the military code of justice – the “catch-all” Article 134 for offenses against “good military order and discipline.” But don't count on that, he said.

“If we have a soldier who engages in sodomy with an animal – whether a government animal or a non-government animal – is it, in fact, a chargeable offense under the Uniform Code? I think that’s in question,” Maginnis told CNSNews.com. “When the reader stops laughing, the reader needs to ask the question whether or not this is in the best interests of the government, in the best interests of the military and the best interests of the country? I think not.” He added: “Soldiers, unfortunately, like it or not, have engaged in this type of behavior in the past. Will they in the future, if they remove this statute? I don’t know.”

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[waltky]

Update...

Senate Approves Bill that Legalizes Sodomy and Bestiality in U.S. Military
December 1, 2011 – (Updated) The Senate on Thursday evening voted 93-7 to approve a defense authorization bill that includes a provision which not only repeals the military law on sodomy, it also repeals the military ban on sex with animals--or bestiality.

On Nov. 15, the Senate Armed Services Committee had unanimously approved S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes a provision to repeal Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). Article 125 of the UCMJ makes it illegal to engage in both sodomy with humans and sex with animals. It states: "(a) Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense. (b) Any person found guilty of sodomy shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said the effort to remove sodomy from military law stems from liberal Senate Democrats' and President Obama’s support for removing the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. “It’s all about using the military to advance this administration’s radical social agenda,” Perkins told CNSNews.com. “Not only did they overturn Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, but they had another problem, and that is, under military law sodomy is illegal, just as adultery is illegal, so they had to remove that prohibition against sodomy.” Perkins said removing the bestiality provision may have been intentional--or just “collateral damage”

“Well, whether it was inadvertent or not, they have also taken out the provision against bestiality,” he said. “So now, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), there’s nothing there to prosecute bestiality." Former Army Col. Bob Maginnis said some military lawyers have indicated that bestiality may be prosecutable under another section of the military code of justice – the “catch-all” Article 134 for offenses against “good military order and discipline.”

MORE

 

[Warrior102]

Fantastic. When they're not focused on getting their asses shot off, they have this to ponder.

Fucking idiot.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Finally the military is abiding by the same Constitution its member swear to preserve, protect and defend.

 

[old navy]

Like all good Sailors, the first place I would head off to on liberty while in a foreign port was the off-limits area. One particular bar in "the gut" did donkey shows and other various acts with different members of the animal kingdom. After a couple gallons of Mo-Jo and a few San Miguels, the interest in the entertainment started to "rise."

Truthfully, I was never too crazy about watching a LBFMPBR do it with a farm animal but those acts were supplemented with banana and ping pong ball shooting and peso squats. One night in particular though, one of the girls walked out on the stage with a German Shepherd. Before it even started, I got up and walked out of the bar. There is something about doing it with a dog that just ain't right.

Yeah, the DOD has made it legal for dudes to diddle each other, but with animals, come on now, that's a little too much.

 

[rightwinger]

But....but

What about the showers?

 

[old navy]

But....but

What about the showers?

Soap on a rope.

 

[Warrior102]

Like all good Sailors, the first place I would head off to on liberty while in a foreign port was the off-limits area. One particular bar in "the gut" did donkey shows and other various acts with different members of the animal kingdom. After a couple gallons of Mo-Jo and a few San Miguels, the interest in the entertainment started to "rise."

Truthfully, I was never too crazy about watching a LBFMPBR do it with a farm animal but those acts were supplemented with banana and ping pong ball shooting and peso squats. One night in particular though, one of the girls walked out on the stage with a German Shepherd. Before it even started, I got up and walked out of the bar. There is something about doing it with a dog that just ain't right.

Yeah, the DOD has made it legal for dudes to diddle each other, but with animals, come on now, that's a little too much.

Ah yes - good old P.I.

I too remember stacking the Pesos so the girls could have a seat.

Ah youth. These young kids don't know what they missed back in the day.

Ever catch the "Banana Act" at the Tower Club in Okinawa?

 

[rightwinger]

But....but

What about the showers?

Soap on a rope.

Military ingenuity.......is there an NSN on that?

 

[old navy]

But....but

What about the showers?

Soap on a rope.

Military ingenuity.......is there an NSN on that?

Soap NSN 8520-00-270-0065

Rope NSN: 4020-01-338-3307

Couldn't find the two together but could probably do something with the above items.

 

[old navy]

Like all good Sailors, the first place I would head off to on liberty while in a foreign port was the off-limits area. One particular bar in "the gut" did donkey shows and other various acts with different members of the animal kingdom. After a couple gallons of Mo-Jo and a few San Miguels, the interest in the entertainment started to "rise."

Truthfully, I was never too crazy about watching a LBFMPBR do it with a farm animal but those acts were supplemented with banana and ping pong ball shooting and peso squats. One night in particular though, one of the girls walked out on the stage with a German Shepherd. Before it even started, I got up and walked out of the bar. There is something about doing it with a dog that just ain't right.

Yeah, the DOD has made it legal for dudes to diddle each other, but with animals, come on now, that's a little too much.

Ah yes - good old P.I.

I too remember stacking the Pesos so the girls could have a seat.

Ah youth. These young kids don't know what they missed back in the day.

Ever catch the "Banana Act" at the Tower Club in Okinawa?

Four ships, embarked on others and three FMF tours and I never made it to Oki.

Playing "smiles" at Marilyn's in Subic City though provided enough memories for a lifetime.

 

[waltky]

Granny says dey need to wake up an' pay attention to what dey votin' on...

‘On What?’--McCain Says He Didn’t Know Defense Bill He Approved Repealed Military Ban on Sodomy, Bestiality
December 7, 2011 - Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that he did not know that the 926-page Defense Department authorization bill that came through his committee and was approved by the Senate last week on a 93-to-7 vote included a provision that would repeal the military’s ban on sodomy and bestiality if the bill becomes law.

CNSNews.com asked McCain: “Senator, did you read the Defense authorization bill that was passed last week? Were you aware of the language that repealed the ban on sodomy and bestiality?” “On what?” McCain replied. CNSNews.com followed up: “The repeal of the ban on sodomy and bestiality in the military, were you at all aware of that?” “I’ll have to ask my folks,” McCain said. “I—I will check on it and have, and he’ll get back to you.”

CNSNews.com then asked: “You don’t agree with that language?” “I don’t, I don’t know what you’re—honestly. I read the bill. And I was there for many hours of deliberation and debate and amendments. And probably spent hundreds of, several hundred hours on it. But that particular provision I did not know. So we’ll have, we’ll get back to you. We’ll get back to you. Just call.”

As CNSNews.com previously reported, the bill that was first approved by the Armed Service Committee, where McCain is ranking member, and then on the Senate floor, where McCain voted for it, does in fact include a provision repealing the military’s ban on sodomy and bestiality. Page 174 of the bill includes a provision headlined in capital letters: “REPEAL OF SODOMY ARTICLE.” Click here to see a PDF of the page.

The provision states: “Section 925 of such title (article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice) is repealed.” Click here to see the language of the provision as posted on Uniform Code of Miltary Justice website. Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which anyone can find by doing a Google search, says: “(a) Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense. (b) Any person found guilty of sodomy shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.”

MORE

See also:

Sen. Lindsey Graham Says He Didn't Know Defense Bill He Approved Lifts Military Ban on Sodomy and Bestiality
December 7, 2011 - Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), asked Wednesday if he was aware of a provision in the National Defense Authorization Bill that repeals the ban on sodomy and bestiality in the military, told CNSNews.com: “No, I can’t say I was.”

A former military prosecutor and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Graham joined 92 of his colleagues in voting to pass the 926-page National Defense Authorization Act, which contains a repeal of an article in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) that bans sodomy, including engaging in sex with an animal, or bestiality. The bill passed 93-7 last Thursday. At the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, CNSNews.com asked Graham: “The Defense Authorization Bill, were you aware of the repeal of the ban of sodomy and bestiality in the military, article 125?”

“No, I can’t say I was,” Graham said. “But I can, I think I know what the military is getting at there, in light of the change in policy. But no, I can’t say that I was, so we’ll look at that.” CNSNews.com then asked, “And you don’t support that?” “Well, I gotta -- I want to get DOD’s reasoning. Okay? I’m sure it was put in there as a -- as input from the Department of Defense, I’d like to hear them out,” Graham said. CNSNews.com also asked if Graham thought the ban was related to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the policy that prohibited gays from openly serving in the military that was ended in September.

“Sure it does. Sure it does,” Graham said. “You got the -- you got a United States Supreme Court case, Texas case, talking about consensual behavior with adults. I’m sure that may have some deal to do with it, too.” As CNSNews.com previously reported the bill that was first approved by the Senate Armed Service Committee and then approved on the Senate floor, includes a provision repealing the military’s ban on sodomy and bestiality.

MORE

 

[whitehall]

Sometimes generals are placed in a position where they have to parrot the policies of the administration or look for a job.

 

[waltky]

No big deal say Pentagon but PETA jumps into the fray...

Pentagon Says Sodomy/Bestiality Repeal 'Fails to Rise to Level of News'; But Former Chief Army Prosecutor Says 'Yes it Does'
December 9, 2011 - A Defense Department spokesman claims that a provision in the Senate defense authorization bill that repeals the criminalization of sodomy and sex with animals – bestiality – was just a cosmetic change to military law that the Defense Department began eight years ago.

In an interview Thursday with CNSNews.com, Army Lt. Col. Todd Braesseale (pronounced: BRAZIL) said the provision was an effort to comply with the Supreme Court’s 2003 Lawrence v. Texas decision striking down state laws on sodomy.

“I’m not entirely sure of the timeline. I know it started immediately following the Supreme Court ruling on the Texas case, which ruled that states do not have an interest in upholding sodomy laws, and so at that point, the department, under the former administration, began work trying to align the Uniform Code of Military Justice into a set of codes and regulations that would be in line with the U.S. Constitution,” Braesseale told CNSNews.com.

The Pentagon spokesman also challenged the idea that the Senate bill strikes down Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice – and told CNSNews.com that bestiality is still illegal under military law. Braesseale also said he "failed to see how this rises to the level of news."

MORE

See also:

PETA Rebukes White House for 'Flippantly' Dismissing Question on Senate's Vote to Legalize Bestiality in Military
December 8, 2011 - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has written a letter to White House Press Secrtary Jay Carney rebuking him for "flippantly" dismissing a question he was asked at Monday's press briefing about last week's Senate vote approving a bill that would repeal the military's ban on bestiality.

PETA has also written to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta asking him to make sure that language is added to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) to prohibit both bestiality and cruelty to animals. A provision in the Defense authorization bill that passed the Senate last week by a 93-to-7 vote would strip the provision from the UCMJ that currently prohibits sodomy and bestiality. In a letter to Carney, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk told the White House spokesman that the animal rights group was upset that Carney laughingly dismissed a reporter's question asking about the commander-in-chief’s position on bestiality. "In watching last night's news briefing, we were upset to note that you flippantly addressed the recently approved repeal of the military ban on bestiality," Newkirk writes. "As we outlined in the attached letter sent yesterday to the Secretary of Defense, animal abuse does not affect animals only--it is also a matter of public safety, as people who abuse animals very often go on to abuse human beings."

"[M]illions of Americans are upset that animals no longer have even minimal protections under the UCMJ [Uniform Code of Military Justice]," the PETA president wrote. "We hope that the public outcry against this inadvertent lapse will inspire the military to take action to make sure that it will be able to fully and appropriately serve and protect all Americans--human and nonhuman alike," Newkirk said. In a separate letter, Newkirk told Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that "an emergency exists" and asked Panetta for his "immediate intervention” in the bestiality situation. “PETA is being inundated with complaints regarding the inadvertent removal of an anti-bestiality provision from the Uniform Code of Military Justice, stripping away what minimal protection the UCMJ afforded “non-public” (i.e., non-service) animals,” the letter said. “This change means that bestiality charges can now be filed only at the discretion of superior officers--under a catch-all provision of the UCMJ prohibiting behavior unbecoming a service member,” Newkirk added.

The animal-rights organization lectured the defense secretary on the dangers of animal abuse and its linkage with sexual assault on humans. “On behalf of our millions of U.S. members, as well as those overseas where our military also serves, we ask that you please act immediately to establish a policy of zero tolerance for cruelty to animals by adding a section to the UCMJ prohibiting cruelty--including bestiality--to non-public animals,” she wrote. The repeal of the military law against sodomy and sex with animals was contained in the 926-page Department of Defense authorization bill that the Senate passed last Thursday evening. Page 174 of the bill includes the provision headlined in capital letters: “REPEAL OF SODOMY ARTICLE.”

MORE

 

[California Girl]

Military following orders... wow, I so did not see that coming.

 

[Si modo]

Military following orders... wow, I so did not see that coming.

Who'dathunkit?

 

[California Girl]

Military following orders... wow, I so did not see that coming.

Who'dathunkit?

I was shocked!

Shocked!

Shocked, I tell ya!

 

[Prince_Jamie]

Does the repeal of the bestiality act actual make that much difference? I mean, are US military personel likely to commit this offense if it's not illegal?