Gender, race still impact DADT discharges
Advocate. com reports that, although advocates are aware that racial minorities and women are discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” at a higher rate than white males, a new study shows the numbers for these groups are on the increase.
According to the Williams Institute at University of California, which released the study’s findings Sept. 17, the percentage of women discharged under the ban has increased from 22 percent in 1997 to 39 percent in 2009.
Additionally, while racial and ethnic minorities make up a third of the U.S. military, DADT discharges among this group have risen slightly in the same time frame.
Suit over gay-marriage speech dismissed
The San Francisco Chronicle reports a federal appeals court has tossed out the lawsuit of a California community college student who claimed that a teacher illegally berated him in class for making a speech opposing same-sex marriage.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 17 unanimously overturned a lower court decision allowing Los Angeles City College student Jonathan Lopez’s case to go forward.
The three-judge appeals panel said Lopez failed to show he was harmed by the incident.
Lopez alleged that a speech instructor cut him off midway through his oration when he quoted a dictionary definition of marriage and recited a pair of Bible verses, then called him a “fascist bastard.”
Candidate: Girl Scouts are ‘lesbian atheists’
The News Tribune reports a candidate for the Washington state House of Representatives said the Girl Scouts of America is a hotbed of lesbianism and atheism.
Hans Zeiger, the 25-year-old Republican nominee for Washington’s 25th district seat, once wrote on a conservative website that the Girl Scouts organization has been spared the scrutiny faced by the Boy Scouts of America regarding its rules against gay inclusion because the former allows lesbians and atheists. He also charged the Girl Scouts with being a “pro-abortion, feminist training corps.”
Some of his more offensive comments have been deleted from the site.
— Larry Nichols