An excellent, moving speech, which Rachel Maddow calls an "outraged exclamation point," by Rep. Jim Moran (D-8th).
I rise today to share the substance of an email from an active-duty soldier in Afghanistan. Response to an inquiry from his commanding officer related to the military's review of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, the soldier shared how he and his partner of 10 years have managed multiple deployments to Iraq and to Afghanistan. He explained that they survived like any couple does except, because of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, his partner would not be informed in the event of his death and could not make any emergency decisions that would normally fall to a spouse. Their situation is typical, even within his unit; he learned that a fellow soldier was also gay, only after he was killed by an IED in Iraq. The partner of the deceased soldier wrote the unit to say how much the victim had loved the military, how they were the only family he had ever known.Powerful.
