To: <s-acc@yahoogroups.com>

From: "Andrew Phelps" <starfish@northcoast.com>

Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:40:35 -0800

Subject: [s-acc] DADT and NSR

Pres. Obama has signed into law the abolition of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) U.S. military policy. What Clinton set up as "keep the old social roles" now has transformed into "show the new social roles," especially with regard to military demeanor.

This advance in the human rights struggle will help provide collateral advantage for the client/survivor effort, as well. Feminist activists from our struggle learned to their dismay some 30 years ago that the mainstream feminist movement was comprised of two social classes, "sisters" and "diagnosed sisters." [Paula Caplan has played a strong, longterm role in breaking down that barrier (which still obtains): This fall, we were honored to have her present with us in Anaheim.]

The GLBTQ movement, which is historically later than the feminist movement and also historically antecedent to the client/survivor movement for human rights, has also engaged our activism in a competitive manner with its own tone of discrimination. We're "homophobic" because sometimes we get into clinical gaze based social relations that lean on the dominant "libido" theory, or face behavior management where we don't accept our defined role as "behavior objects." Our lived experience is "not being taken seriously" and the above attitude, using that "phobia" reference, with the nuance of "diagnosed person," protected the old social role of many GLBTQ persons in social interaction with us. Now with DADT the utility of that discriminatory way of talking is undercut.

I hope that the use of that type of discriminatory language will subside. And I hope too that our own "new social roles" advocacy will get its own boost, as well!