As more and more Republicans lined up in opposition to the repeal of DADT, I started thinking about how stupid it all is. I decided that if I had the chance, I'd do my best to make it as clear as I could.
So today when I ran into Sen. Jeff Sessions, I decided to let 'er rip.
So far as I know, high school athletes are required to share locker facilities with their gay peers. High school kids that are inherently vulnerable and poorly equipped to deal with the intricacies of a complex world!! But they are expected to deal with people different from them.
And that's too much to ask from our military.
Here's Sessions:
Transcript from Stef; let's make sure she get's her mojo... (and thanks to lostintexas for the email letting me know to update)
Q: Senator Sessions, Senator Sessions, I'm assuming correctly you're going to vote against any repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, is that correct?
Sessions: Well, that's my inclination based on the testimony we've seen in the report. It's a very difficult time, military, uh, people have no appreciation for how many hours they work, both in the combat zone and preparing to go. So to add additional burden and counseling and training and other things, I think would be more than they want to do.
Q: More often than not up here I hear people, politicians and otherwise, talk about how tough our heroes are in the military, that they can handle just about anything. But it is the Republican consensus that this is asking too much of them. I've got another constituency in mind that may be more vulnerable than the military and I'm wondering if you can reconcile the conflict. More and more across the country, we're seeing these It Gets Better campaigns, or National Coming Out days at high schools, or Gay and Lesbian Tolerance days. So what of the male high school athlete who comes out to his peers, his other teammates. Should the other teammates be forced to shower with the same male athlete? Do they need protection from, essentially, serving in athletic endeavors with gays? I mean they're high school kids, they're not even the tough soldiers we're talking about.
Sessions: Well I think that'll, you know, um, um, we live in a free country. The military's different. Um, uh, but uh, you know everybody has a right to go to school, regardless of their sexual orientation and they should in no way be discriminated against. Thank you.
Q: So you'd be fine with having a... Just one more question
Sessions: No, no
Q: So you'd be fine with a male wrestler wrestling a gay male wrestler?
Sessions gets in elevator
Elevator guy: How you been doing?
Sessions to elevator guy: How are you?
Q: Thanks Senator.