(Also published at What Would Jack Do?)

Yesterday marked the official end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” GLBT Americans can now serve in this country’s military without having to live a lie. While the end of DADT is certainly a wonderful thing worth celebrating, it’s sad that we’ve had to travel the long and winding road it took to get to this point. That hatred and discrimination is as American as baseball, apple pie, and Ann Coulter naked, trussed up, and wearing a ball gag is sad enough. That it took so many years to undo the Clinton-era sop to haters says far too much about our collective inability to respect and honor our differences and celebrate our mutual humanity.

Perhaps the end of DADT will finally demonstrate that hatred and discrimination, while certainly a powerful force, no longer possesses the power to set the agenda to the liking of the haters and the zealots. Perhaps it finally means that Gays and Lesbians really do deserve to be regarded and treated no differently from the heterosexual majority. Perhaps it means that we can all just get along.

Now all we have to do is convince the haters that if Gays and Lesbians are good enough to willingly fight and die for their country, they’re certainly good enough to be allowed to marry and enjoy the rights that accrue to heterosexuals.

Isn’t it about time we stopped tolerating a system that treats a entire class of people as second-class citizens solely on the basis of who and how they love?