DADT:
It might actually all be happening: it seems like despite the best efforts of Republicans, the eventual actual repeal of DADT is becoming more and more of a reality. The Pentagon says that training is proceeding on schedule, and that training could be “sufficiently finished” by mid-summer to “allow for certification of repeal.” Based on their statements, the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel & Readiness Clifford Stanley and Director of the Joint Staff Vice Adm. William Gourtney seem at least not completely opposed to the repeal:
According to Stanley, the U.S. military has trained more than 200,000 members of the armed forces on handling open service, or about nine percent of the armed forces.
Gourtney concurred that mid-summer is the time for when certification for repeal is expected to happen.
“It’s really the magnitude of the challenge that’s out there and making sure that as we get our arms around the magnitude of the challenge, we don’t miss anything,” Gourtney said. “So we’re grateful for the deliberate process that has been laid out and we’re [looking at] mid-summer for the recommendation. Followed by 60 days after that, repeal is achievable.”
PETTY OFFICER 2ND CLASS MORADO
And more immediately, there’s the story of Petty Officer 2nd Class Derek Morado, who was outed in 2009 by a photo with another man online, and who faced the threat of discharge under DADT. No one seems to know of any soldiers discharged since Obama’s signing a bill into law, and Morado didn’t want to be the first: his lawyer argued that Morado should be allowed to keep his job because DADT is on its way out. And while the Navy won’t disclose the reasons why he was not discharged, according to a Navy spokesperson, Morado won the right to stay. Even if the Pentagon refuses to acknowledge it, it seems likely that this is a recognition on their part that DADT discharges are finally over; even though they could legally still push them through with a great deal of effort, it would just mean more time, money and resources spent bringing the same soldiers back on when the repeal is officially ‘certified.’ Hopefully this means we can look forward to a future with more stories like Morado’s!
GAY ADOPTION:
The state of Virginia is proposing adding anti-discrimination language around queer adoptive and foster parents. The proposed language states that “The licensee shall prohibit acts of discrimination based on race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, political beliefs, sexual orientation, disability, or family status to: 1. Delay or deny a child’s placement; or 2. Deny an individual the opportunity to apply to become a foster or adoptive parent.” You can go here to tell the Virginia Department of Social Services that you support the idea!
KSTEW AND FEMINISM:
YOU GUYS SOMEONE WROTE A SMART AND FEMINIST THING ABOUT KRISTEN STEWART. I know, I know, me too. Basically as you may have heard Kristen Stewart is like a HUGE BITCH OR WHATEVER who doesn’t even smile for pictures and that’s like really ungrateful and unattractive right???? Or wait, no it’s not: “Stewart is often a target of a specific kind of body policing: the “smile, baby” requirement. When she appears on the red carpet and does not assure us with her teeth that she is simply thrilled to be reduced to a presence, a dress, a posture, she is often the target of harassment for her expression. There is an expectation of women in general and famous woman in particular to always assure the onlooker that they are happy to be looked upon through smiling, and Stewart rejects this.” THIS ARTICLE INCLUDES THE WORDS “AFFRONT TO THE PATRIARCHY”
LOOK AT THAT NONSMILE
IRELAND:
From April 4 to 15 it’s Stand Up! LGBT Awareness Week in Ireland. Look there’s this really cute video PSA!
PRO-GAY HOCKEY:
Men’s sports teams aren’t necessarily known for their support of differing sexual orientations, but after the tragic death of their manager Brendan Burke the Miami Red Hawks are speaking out on acceptance. “One stereotype that people have about gay people is that they’re predators and they’re going to come on to straight guys,” said defenseman Chris Wideman. “But the one thing I learned from Brendan is that’s not how it is. The idea that a gay guy is going to force himself on you in a shower is totally unrealistic.”
GAY PRIEST:
Father James St. George was fired from his position at Chestnut Hill College, and he says it’s because of his homosexuality. But he’s been hired again basically right away by UPenn! He’ll be teaching on religion, social justice, and urban development.
HARRY POTTER:
Lupin was maybe kind of gay, at least in the movies? I don’t know it’s unclear and also this news comes via twitter.
LESBIAN PROM TUX:
Lesbian high schoolers and prom, am I right, ladies? In this case, it’s good news: Belinda Sanchez, who’s been out since her freshman year, was told by her high school principal that she couldn’t wear a tux to her senior prom. But the LGBT Group at the ACLU stood up for her, and now she’ll go to her prom looking fly. “This sends a negative message to other students that they can’t express who they are,” said John Knight, director of the LGBT Project at the ACLU. “It’s a First Amendment right, a free speech right, and that includes her right to send a message through wearing male clothing that she doesn’t think women should be restricted to traditional female clothing.”
WRITERS:
Jennifer Egan has some wise words for all of us who wanted to go stick our head into a pile of shredded 30 Under 30 lists, and she’s been in The New Yorker and so she must be right. (It works better if you ignore the seeming contradiction there.)
DINAH SHORE:
Thank you for reading and commenting while we were at Girl Bar’s Dinah Shore Weekend! We missed you!
THIS IS DINAH SHORE
“THIS ARTICLE INCLUDES THE WORDS “AFFRONT TO THE PATRIARCHY””
^ when this is a reason to read an article, you know you’ve arrived. four for you, autostraddle!
It has always aggravated me when people tell me to smile but I’ve never seen it discussed like that before. For the record, everyone who tells me to “smile!” gets a sneer.
Otters and beavers…
Makes sense!
That KStew article was perfect. I get really, really bitter about women being expected to smile more. Probably because I’ve been told I don’t smile enough my whole life. Or maybe it’s cause of that one time I got denied a raise over it…
that video was the cutest thing i’ve ever seen, mostly because irish accents actually make anything CUTER
Duh Remus Lupin is gay. He was gay through the beginning, middle, and sad end. Tonks was all into him, but he kept saying he was “too old, too poor, and too dangerous,” which is obvi code for “too gay.” He didn’t WANT to marry her, she was just hella depressed, and he’s the kind of guy who would actually marry someone because they were sad that he wasn’t marrying them. Esp. since Sirius was all dead and stuff. And he’s a middle aged man in the early to mid-90s with metaphorical AIDS.
There is so much subtext in the books that it totes makes all kinds of sense that an actor looking to interpret the character would play Lupin as gay, regardless of what JK says is the actual truth.
Personal belief on how Tonks got pregnant:
Tonks: Remus, did you use a condom?
Remus: But Sirius and I never used condoms… oh shit.
This actually makes hideous sense.
I always tried to believe that Remus actually loved Tonks because Remus was my favourite (and also I had friends who were serious R/T fans) even though I STILL think that he was definitely completely in love with Sirius. Anyway I don’t like to think of him doing something like that to Tonks – who was an awesome character before she got together with him. To be dishonest with someone about that, when you’re old and therefore self-aware … on the other hand, it is kind of horribly in character, because Remus’ huge weakness is in just going along with what people say, in not rocking the boat.
whatever Remus, your life sucked and then you died, JKR thinks that’s fine I guess. D:
There’s also the end of Deathly Hallows where it becomes apparent that Remus would rather spend his afterlife with the Marauders than with Tonks. Just saying.
Which is sad for Tonks. She wasn’t my favorite character (that honor goes, of course, to Narcissa) but she did always seem to be searching for a kind of acceptance she never quite got.
“[…]she did always seem to be searching for a kind of acceptance she never quite got.”
This.
Tonks is such an unconventional woman, it really doesn’t surprise me that she would end up with someone as Lupin: they are both loners, outsiders, freaks.
She is strong-minded, independent, impulsive, and does not want to be ordered around or be controlled by the others. She has sense of humour and is not afraid of pointing out her own flaws, is clumsy, not conventionally beautiful, and a tomboy. Also, she wears really short hair. Am I the only one who sees her as a perfect lesbian?
And as poprocksalt says, despite the friendship of many Order members, she still doesn’t seem to be really accepted because of her refusal to bow down to conventionality.
In short, I really like her character (apart from when she loses all of these appealing traits by moping after Lupin).
Tonks was always gay in my head! I was totally pissed off when she ended up with Lupin. I mean, I loved Lupin too, it just wasn’t at all how I wanted either of their characters to go.
If I have to be honest, I’ll admit that I’m a hopeless romantic and that I think that Lupin loved Sirius AND Tonks both.
Of course he was gay, or at least gay for Sirius. In this site more than most we should be able to ackownledge that love goes beyond labels and that sexuality can be fluid. They had a beautiful, passionate, star-crossed romance that was interrupted by the arrest of Sirius, was reprised 13 years later, and was tragically put to an end by Sirius’ death.
But that does not mean that Lupin may not have loved again, just like real people in real life love more than one person per lifetime or are able to marry again after divorcing/losing a spouse.
After OotP, Lupin was left desperate, alone, abandoned by all of his friends (I mean the Mauraders, of course), poor and neglected. And I think that Tonks somehow helped him move on. Of course he would have pushed her away at the beginning: he was a werewolf, twice her age, poor, and he had just lost the love of his lifetime. I don’t think he thought he would ever be able to be in a relationship again. But I feel as though with time, Tonks’ devotion, humour, freshness and empathy might have helped him come to life again. Despite himself–and Sirius’ memory–he found himself loving again, and mustering the energies and hopes to begin a new life. All was not over for him. Tonks gave him all that Sirius had never given him: stability, a home, a real sense of family.
And of course after that he had to die.
Summing it up, Sirius was definetely Remus’ lover, and also the love of his life, but I think that he also genuinely loved Tonks and had found with her and Teddy a peace of mind that he had never experienced before. After his death, he belongs with the Marauders :)
(Remus and Sirius have always been some of my favourite characters for the aura of tragedy that surrounds them…)
(Also, I am clearly an Harry Potter freak. If I wanted, I could probably write an essay to any topic related to it. Got any problems with that??)
I agree. I think Sirius was a love of his life, but he also truly loved and cared for Tonks. This is, in fact, possible. You can have many Love of Your Lifes over the course of one lifetime. Also, marriage doesn’t need to be based on that person being The ONE. It is based on love and respect and actually being able to stand living together. You know?
Also, dude, she could morph any part of her body to look like anything she wanted. You’ve got to assume that this could make their sex life seriously interesting.
omg all this harry potter talk is making me so happy
The KStew article really hit the nail on the head. I suspect the smiling requirement at work stems from the omnipresent requirement that women gleefully clean and rear children. In fact, I think if a man was spotted grinning in the capacity that women are expected to, people would think he was “like so totally gay.”
The K-Stew article instantly reminded me of this song:
http://www.justsomelyrics.com/2494374/Ani-Lorak-Smile-Lyrics
but then hows she gonna cruise without her lesbian scowl?
That Kristen Stewart article was so good and I don’t even have feelings about her. Some of the comments were pretty insightful too; one commenter brought up how we can use this and compare it to how women of color, especially working class women, experience body policing. Yay the meeting point of media and real life!
I’m excited about DADT. I’ve had to deal with this alot at it sucks, it sucks big, ugly, hairy, sweaty, stinky balls(ew). It’s like, you have to know who to trust with the info, “I have a crush on your sister, not you”. And it’s hard(that’s what she said(sorry I watch too much of The Office)), dealing with that. Getting all the questions, like hey “Private Sexums, why aren’t you dating anyone?” And having to deal, lie, pay your gay bestie to act “straight” for events. Its all cool if you’re on the in with a few ladymo’s and gentmo’s, but if you don’t have that in, you feel alone. And most people have had to get good at hiding it. I sure as hell have, sure it helps that I’m on the more feminine end of the spectrum but still, it’s horrible jumping back in the closet.
My first sergeant says we’re gonna receive the briefing on how to treat gays by april 30th. I’m so drawing a rainbow on my tan tee and opening my ACU blouse and going TA DAHHHH the whole day. All of my cadre knows, but it’ll be nice to be legally allowed to be awesome.
also, when I posted this information on facebook, I realized I had the most…special…friends “Is the briefing gonna teach them how to be gay” if so I WILL TEACH THE FREAKIN CLASS.