Don't Ask, Don't Tell is ending

As probably everyone in the US has heard, a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell passed the Senate on Saturday. (It's the law that prevents gays and lesbians from serving in the Armed Forces unless they are never sexually active and never tell anyone their orientation.) That is good news. Now the President will sign it and the process set up to end it will begin. There were a handful of Republicans voting for it - why not, since the majority of Americans supported repeal. It was a bad law from the beginning.

I do have to wonder about the progress over the last two years, in which Democrats had majorities in both houses of Congress and the Presidency. The only positive laws that passed for gays and lesbians were a hate crimes law and the eventual end of DADT. Yes, the President issued an executive order requiring hospitals that accept governmental funds (as almost all do) to permit gays and lesbians to have their partners visit them, but that really isn't much to show for two years. Where was the Employment Non-discrimination Act that prevents employers from firing someone just for being gay or lesbian? Or some type of federal recognition of same sex couples? Or a change in laws to allow Americans to sponsor their partners for immigration? Or some federal law to protect gay and lesbian kids from bullying at school? Maybe I was expecting too much, but I was only hoping for equality, which shouldn't be too much for 21st century America.

Argentina, and the economy

Very early this morning local time, after debating for 14 hours, the Senate in Argentina approved a marriage equality bill. The President has promised to sign the bill, so Argentina now becomes the twelfth country on four continents to have marriage equality. This happened despite the Catholic and Mormon churches publicly opposing equality. Viva Argentina!

Meanwhile, here in the US, our Senate has decided to remove ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, from the calendar of scheduled votes. (ENDA would prevent employers from firing a worker simply because he or she is gay, lesbian or transgendered - yes, that is still legal in most of the US.) With elections in November, the Senate is afraid to vote on anything controversial - like equality.


I got another reminder today of how the bad economy, and the screwed up US health care system, affect my patients. I saw a middle aged diabetic woman today who had her blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes under good control last year. This year her diseases all all a lot worse. It turns out that her hours were cut back at work, so her paycheck is smaller, and her co payments for medications went up. So she can't afford two of her blood pressure medications or her insulin. But if she goes into a coma or has a stroke her hospitalization will be covered. How idiotic is that?