Wojtek wrote: "gays have already served, they just could be open about their sexual orientation." fm: Presently, if gay people are open about their sexual identity in the US military they'll be dismissed. "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" was a compromise passed under the Clinton administration that allowed gay people to serve in the military if they remained closeted about their sexual identity. The repeal of DADT means, presumably, that gay people will be allowed to be open about who they are while they serve. So it's more than a symbolic decision. I liked Walter Benn Michael's take on the way neoliberalism needs diversity to thrive and that's especially true under the Obama administration. At the same time, racial diversity, gender parity and LGBT rights are ideally something worth having and fighting for. It's when those rights are used as camouflage for extreme unbalances in economic justice or as advertisements for a more progressive militarism that we need to look to the way our identities are being used to rebrand and sell the status quo.
fm