Here are excerpts from the Lady Gaga speech at the Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal rally in Maine:
I am here because Don't Ask, Don't Tell is wrong. It's unjust and fundamentally it is against all that we stand for as Americans.
John McCain and other Republican Senators are using homophobia as a defense in their argument.
Doesn't it seem to be that Don't Ask, Don't Tell is backwards? Doesn't it seem to be based on the Constitution of the United States that we are penalizing the wrong soldier? Doesn't it seem to you that we should send home the prejudiced? The straight soldier who hates the gay soldier? The straight soldier whose performance in the military is affected because he is homophobic. The straight soldier who has prejudice in his heart in the space where the military asks him to hold our core American values. He instead holds and harbors hate, and he gets to stay and fight for our country? He gets the honor, but we gay soldiers who harbor no hatred, no prejudice, no phobia were sent home? I am here today because I would like to propose a new law. A law that sends home the soldier who has the problem. Our new law is called, "If you don't like it - go home." A law that discharges the soldier with the issue. The law that discharges the soldier with the real problem. The homophobic soldier that has a real negative effect on unit cohesion. A law that sends home the homophobe, a law that sends home the prejudiced, a law that doesn't prosecute the gay soldier who fights for equality with no problems, but prosecutes the straight soldier who fights against it. To be fair, it sends home the straight soldier who fights for some freedoms, for some equalities, but not for the equality of the gay. He or she is the one under this new proposition who will be discharged for disrupting the military. If you are not committed to perform with excellence as a United States soldier because you don't believe in full equality - go home. If you are not honorable enough to fight without prejudice - go home. If you are not capable of keeping your oath to the armed forces to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic - then go home.
Should the military be allowed to treat Constitutional rights like a cafeteria? Should soldiers and the government be able to pick and choose what we are fighting for in the Constitution? I wasn't aware of this ambiguity in our Constitution - I though the Constitution was ultimate. I thought equality was non-negotiable. I thought equality meant everyone. Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell - or go home.
