Free At Last

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was well intended at its inception, although never a good idea. It's wrong to require people to pretend to be what they are not--something politicians seldom grasp, because they pretend for a living. To make things worse, military bigots immediately altered the law to mean "I will catch you if I can." Thousands of gays and lesbians who did not "tell" were hunted down and discharged.

Repeal of this law is a major gain in civil rights. It moves us into the twentieth century and gives America hope of entering the current century. We have cast off the shame of legal second class citizenship. And we can thank two sources: the fighting spirit of people who refused to accept the status quo and the strategy of Obama, Pelosi and Reid, which was often condemned but worked out exactly as the President had planned.

--Gary Goss