GetEQUAL demands apology from Rep. Ike Skelton

Today, GetEQUAL - a direct action lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization - and local Missouri LGBT rights organizations announced the launch of a national campaign demanding Representative Ike Skelton (D-MO) (left) apologize for the homophobic remarks he made last week when speaking about the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law and immediately stop his effort to undercut the repeal of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Additionally, GetEQUAL announced that the group is prepared to turn up the heat with additional actions later this week, unless the Missouri Congressman publicly apologizes today for remarks reiterating his opposition to the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” citing a fear of a “national discussion around homosexuality,” and the posing of an incredibly offensive, homophobic question asking, “What do mommies and daddies say to their 7-year-old child?” - referring to his own outdated views on discussing the lives of LGBT Americans. The Associated Press reported the remarks Rep. Skelton - the chairman of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee and an original author of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law back in 1993 - made to a media breakfast last Tuesday.

“For the chairman of the House Armed Services committee to make such uneducated and unfounded remarks against repealing 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' is nothing short of shocking and reprehensible,” said Kip Williams, co-founder and co-director of GetEQUAL. “This kind of offensive rhetoric might have slipped by as acceptable to say in 1993, but the country has moved leaps and bounds since then. Unfortunately, it appears that Rep. Skelton hasn’t. He should immediately apologize for this scare-mongering that has no place in the public dialogue currently happening around the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’”

Direct action and the gay rights movement

Last week's high-profile direct-action protests to call attention to the federal marriage ban and "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy staged by new LGBT group GetEQUAL showed the power of such actions, if they are tied to a "coherent" political strategy that includes the major LGBT groups and online tools, according to grass-roots organizer and strategist Michael Crawford.

"There's a lot of LGBT generated political heat right now," Crawford says. "Let's work to ensure that it leads to the fires of real change. The LGBT community needs and demands it."