Should openly gay soilders be welcomed into the military?

President Obama called for repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in his State of the Union address last week. Now, the U.S. military’s Adm. Michael  Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate panel that it was wrong to force people to “lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.”

As the U.S. military prepares for the eventual repeal of its 1993 “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy barring gays from serving openly, this topic has generated a lot of comment.

Admiral Mullen’s predecessors held very different views as this blogger points out.

On air: World terror: is Britain the real problem ?

 The African Nobel laureate and Nigerian political activist, Wole Soyinka, thinks ‘England is a “cesspit”‘ that harbours and nurtures terrorism.

Soyinka made his claims in an interview less than a month after a young Nigerian man – educated in the UK – attempted to blow up a plane in Detroit last Christmas.

One Young World – Kashfia Rahman

My name is Kashfia Rahman- I’m a Bangladeshi.

I came upon a facebook page called One Young World by mere chance. I became ecstatic with the various possibilities a summit of this magnitude can have on youths of our country and the world.

I am in my last year studying Marketing and Human Resource Management. I have always considered myself to be one of many. I am not a special person with unique attributes that people can admire.

One Young World – Christine Yusuf

Hi, I’m Christine, a delegate representing Indonesia at One Young World.

I was raised in a multicultural, multifaith and even in multisocial-class family. These things makes me respect differences.

I believe that if we are more open-minded and can accept differences as a blessing in life, racism and discrimination won’t exist.

“Natural law ” ? or the law of the land ?

UPDATE :   

Peter (Dobbie) here with news of Europe Today on air 1700 GMT. Following on from the post below I wanted to let you know we’re discussing this news story on the show tonight as well.

We’ve been speaking to Rocco Buttiglione, an Italian MP, who’s very close to the Vaticans thinking on this. He has some very – er- forthright views. It’s a strong interview, and I’m sure you’ll find it thought provoking. Do let us know on ET what you think about this, or you can post here. Later :o)

*********                         Britain has an Equality Bill currently going through parliament.

The Government here says it’ll make this country a fairer place , protecting people from discrimination in the workplace and elsewhere.

The Pope doesn’t agree. He says :

“the effect of some of the legislation designed to achieve this goal has been to impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs.”