First the good news. For the first time as president, Barack Obama said at the Human Rights Campaign extravaganza in Washington Saturday evening, "I will end 'don't ask, don't tell.' That is my commitment to you."

It was hard to doubt his sincerity. And he gave a number of the...

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network is joining Sunday's National Equality March in Washington because the patience of the LGBT community is running thin with what appears to be President Obama's inaction on issues of great importance to us.

What gays and lesbians are looking for--and will...

The 65,000 gays and lesbians in the military today, the 13,500 who have been discharged because of the law known as "don't ask, don't tell," my colleagues, and I have something we can really cheer about today: an Air Force colonel writing in the new issue of the "authoritative, official...

One of the most disturbing questions in Washington today is just how much sway the military and the Pentagon have over the President in matters ranging from the number of troops in Afghanistan and the conduct and aims of that war, to their eagerness--indeed, their willingness--to advance repeal of...

Why am I troubled by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen at his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday? Not because he got only one question on "don't ask, don't tell" and to that one, from Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo.), he eagerly gave the standard quick response: I'll provide...

A civil rights giant and champion of the underdog has died. Yes, we knew death might come any day. Still, it left me feeling very sad, and I suspect it did most Americans. You pause, you reflect. Many of us have Kennedy memories and stories, and I have mine.

Some...

The House broke a record last month when 18 more Members signed on to co-sponsor the bill to repeal, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" that Patrick Murphy, two-term Democrat from Pennsylvania and the first Iraq war veteran to be elected to Congress, is quarterbacking through the House. The bill, H.R. 1283,...

This is getting ridiculous. In fact, it's beyond ridiculous -- if it weren't so sad. "Don't ask, don't tell" is fast becoming the buck that never stops. It's passed from Congress to the Pentagon to the White House and back again. And again. And again. The gift that keeps on...

The uproar over President Obama's failure to deliver on any of his campaign promises regarding LGBT issues--DADT ("don't ask, don't tell"), ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act), DOMA (the misnamed Defense of Marriage Act)--is turning into a din that's got to be penetrating even the thick walls of the White House. It's...

Gallup brings good news. Across the political spectrum a growing majority of Americans favor allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the military as who they are, not as who they have to pretend to be to keep their jobs. In other words, as Lymari Morales writes for...

Sunday morning on ABC's This Week, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told George Stephanopoulos that they'd been talking about "don't ask, don't tell" in the Pentagon. Admiral Mullen said, "The President has made his strategic intent very clear. . . . I've had discussions with...

***SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO OF FEHRENBACK ON "THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW"***

New President. New Congress. No Change. Here is the latest evidence of what our country is losing under the law that prevents gay men and women from serving openly in the armed forces of the United States.

Lieutenant Colonel...

"We've begun to change the culture of Washington," President Obama said in his boffo remarks at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday night.

Sounds good. But the next morning on ABC's This Week, George Stephanopoulos asked the president's National Security Advisor retired Marine General James L. Jones if...

President Obama is a brave man. He doesn't hesitate to take great political risks. He asked Congress for billions to save the banking system and more billions to stimulate the economy -- and Congress handed them to him. Not everyone looked happily on the trillions we'll be facing in debt,...

Let's get behind the misguided missile that four retired flag officers fired out of the 1950s into the heart of the liberal media last week -- that is, if anyone still considers the Washington Post's editorial pages liberal and if the word itself still carries any meaning except as a...

Elaine Donnelly is at it again. Yesterday she trotted out former commandant of the Marine Corps Carl E. Mundy Jr. and a thousand (she says; we didn't count them) other retired flag and general officers to warn President Obama that they are firmly behind the 1993 law known as...

Put yourself back in the Sixties, aging boomers, and you kids listen up, too. Remember Pete Seeger's famous song, "Where have all the flowers gone?" You boomers may even have sung it a few times. Now flash forward four decades. We're going to adapt the lyrics to fit the new...

If they have a gauge to measure the frantic level at the White House, it's probably spinning like a top right now. And if they're not frantic, they ought to be.

In Sunday's New York Times Frank Rich, quoting from a letter to the editor in the newspaper...

Trying to connect the dots, it's not clear what kind of picture we're getting -- but connections must be made, to paraphrase the words Arthur Miller put into the mouth of Willy Loman's wife. And to quote her directly, "Attention must be paid."

In recent weeks, Todd Belok, a...

The story on the front page of Thursday's Washington Post -- and referenced prominently on HuffPo -- about the late FBI director J. Edgar Hoover's salacious pursuit of the sexual skinny on Lyndon Johnson's aide Jack Valenti is yet another example of what's wrong with Don't Ask, Don't...