"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is One Step Closer to an End

Virginia A. Phillips, a U.S. District Judge in California has, today, issued an injunction against the U.S. Military's policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell, which means that the Pentagon must immediately stop the practice of banning openly gay soldiers from serving in its ranks. The Obama administration is expected to appeal the decision.
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(federal judge virginia a. phillips)
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We don't even have to read the reactions of the Republican right to know what they're going to say about this ruling. They're going to trot out that tired, old excuse that Judge Phillips is an "activist judge". Whatever that means. (To the Republicans, an "activist judge" is any judge who makes a ruling with which they disagree.) But let's get real, as we just wrote in a post yesterday, social change always comes, sooner or later, and often it comes from a judicial ruling. And for opponents of gay rights to say that a judge is being an "activist" for opposing discrimination is a little like Southern slaveholders in the 1860's trying to negate Pres. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation by describing Lincoln as an "activist" president. Bitch, please!