Gay DADT-Discharged Vet Delivers Petition To Only Dem Senator Who Voted To Keep DADT

You remember newly-minted West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, the only Democratic Senator who voted against “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal? Manchin, after the vote, claimed he just didn’t know what to do, how to vote, because he had only been in office a short time.

“As a Senator of just three weeks, I have not had the opportunity to visit and hear the full range of viewpoints from the citizens of West Virginia.”

That was bull. As I wrote,

“Joe Manchin got his start in public service as a state legislator from 1982 to 1996. He served as West Virginia’s Secretary of State from 2000 to 2004.”

And then in 2005 he became Governor.

Senator Manchin, you’ve had TWENTY-EIGHT years to hear the full range of viewpoints from the citizens of West Virginia.

Well, some of Manchin’s constituents didn’t like that.

Via a press release:

Fairness WV, the Mountain’s State’s leading LGBT rights organization, and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) will deliver more than 800 petitions to Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) Charleston and Washington, D.C. offices urging him to vote to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT).” In Charleston, Pepe Johnson, a veteran who was discharged under DADT, will be delivering the petitions.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting this afternoon put the number at “nearly a thousand,” and said, “in response to Manchin’s argument that this is not the right time to repeal the policy against gays and lesbians serving openly,  Johnson says this may be the best time.”

“He says, “You’re telling those gay and lesbian service members who are over in Iraq and Afghanistan that we’re not worried about who you are or who you love.  We’re here to serve with you and we’re not going to prosecute you or harass you, just for being yourself.”

“By delivering petitions to Senator Manchin, the human rights groups are hoping to show that West Virginians care deeply about this issue and believe the law should be repealed.”