[Note: I haven't seen anything about this yet on DailyKos, but it's blowing up the LGBT blogosphere and it's an important topic, so here goes nothing...]
Have y'all seen that survey that the Pentagon is distributing to 400,000 servicemembers about LGBT people in the armed forces???
It's disgusting.
Here's just one of the things they're asking:
How would [servicemembers] react if they had to share a room, bathrooms, and open-bay showers in a war zone with other service members believed to be gay or lesbian?
Really?
Imagine if, instead of issuing an Executive Order integrating our armed forces in 1948, President Harry Truman had instead sent out a survey to all servicemembers asking them questions like "How would you react if you had to share a room, bathrooms, and open-bay showers in a war zone with other service members who are black?"???
Would we have gotten to equality on this issue nearly as quickly?
Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that our troops' opinions on this issue are about the same as the general public, which is an overwhelming majority in favor of repeal, but that we're even having this discussion is so upsetting.
What's more, because "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is still very much the law of the land, and because of potential issues of privacy related to the survey, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is asking LGBT servicemembers to *not* fill it out:
The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said Thursday that troops could be accidentally exposed by answering the survey and that the Defense Department has not agreed to grant immunity should that happen.
Now, the Defense Department is saying that no one will be outed, and all identifying data will be scrubbed, so at least they're saying the right thing. Further, an underground group called Citizens for Repeal is saying take the survey. [Note: They're "underground"... wanna guess why that's still necessary in 2010??]
Still, the larger question remains: Why is this survey even necessary?
Where is our President on this issue? Where is his leadership? He said the policy is wrong and needs to be repealed, and now he's asking 400,000 servicemembers if it's okay with them?
What an abdication of leadership.
[Minor update: I meant to say "black" and not "gay or lesbian" in question about Truman.]