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Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera Speaks Rededicates Times Square Recruiting Station |
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By Andy Humm LGNY
Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera, representing Secretary of Defense William Cohen, told this reporter, "You can serve as a homosexual, but you can't make it a political issue" and went on to compare gay people to "adulterers" in justifying our exclusion. Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington, who led the project to make sure that the city continued to let this bigoted organization occupy such prime real estate rent free, refused to say what he felt about the policy of expelling gays and lesbians from the military. "Every institution has its rules and regulations," he said. Mike Handy, Director of the Mayor's Office for Veterans Affairs and a former member of the board of the Gay Veterans Association, was also asked if he believed that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy should be repealed. "I don't know," he said, "it's the best thing that they could come up with."
"'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is immoral and dangerous," he said, "has ruined thousands of lives, and has taken lives in the name of pandering to the prejudices of the majority." Weinberg cited the recent brutal murder of PFC Barry Winchell in Kentucky by an anti-gay servicemember and the similarly vicious killing of Navy Seaman Allen Schindler by his "mates" several years ago. Weinberg called and e-mailed several gay rights organizations the week prior to the event to join his protest. None produced any demonstrators. A spokesperson for one of the groups said that he was not aware if they had a position on the rightness of the city's rent-free policy toward the military. An out lesbian from the local community board actually attended the ceremony on behalf of her group. "If only one voice is going to speak out," Weinberg said, "let it be me." Schuyler Chapin, the courtly Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the city, was also on hand. He served in World War II for four years in China, Burma, and India and "flew the hump." His service is the kind that gives people warm feelings towards the military and makes them overlook its bigotry. But Chapin himself, when asked about the exclusion of gay people, said, "I would hope to God they would get over all this and come to their senses" about the gay issue. Courtesy of LGNY newspaper |
