Civil rights for gays and lesbians — time permitting

If we get around to it.

That’s essentially the way the Senate is treating a major civil rights issue — full citizenship for gay Americans.

There now appears to be enough support in the U.S. Senate to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the Clinton-era compromise on gays serving in the military that forced gays and lesbians to lie under oath or risk being drummed out of the service. The law, which was viewed as a necessary middle ground at the time by some was just another legal impediment to full citizenship for the LGBT community because it meant that gays and lesbians were restricted from serving unless they kept their true identities hidden. Openly gay men and women were not allowed to serve with an institution that has traditionally been one of the definitions of citizenship.

So, now that the House has passed its repeal, it is up to the Senate, which will try to fit it in. How magnanimous.

• Send me an e-mail.
• Read poetry at The Subterranean.
• Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
• Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet