In a June 8 op-ed in The Washington Examiner, columnist Gregory Kane mocked the designation of June as LBGT Pride Month and attacked the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT). He wrote that the repeal will “create a problem in the barracks” because it is equivalent to “mak[ing] training and barracks living coed.” Kane also attacked the Shepard-Byrd Act, which was signed into law in October 2009 and makes it a federal crime to attack someone for his or her sexual orientation or gender identity. While Kane claimed that "[n]either Obama nor his minions" can “point to one 'hate crime' the Shepard-Byrd Act has prevented,” the bill, as a New York Times article explained at the time, “expands the definition of violent federal hate crimes to those committed because of a victim's sexual orientation.” Previously, the Times article said, hate crimes were defined as “those motivated by the victim's race, color, religion or national origin.”

From the op-ed:

In an America where everyone, every group and everything gets a commemorative month, you had to figure gays and lesbians would get theirs.

Oh, pardon me: Make that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. Actually, the preferred term is probably Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender -- LGBT for short -- because that's how President Obama referred to them in his June 1 proclamation.

The bride month is now LGBT month.

[...]

Obama wants to end discrimination against the LGBT community in federal housing programs and federal jobs. Fine. He appoints qualified people from the LGBT community to positions in the executive and judicial branch of government. Even better.

But he crowed about signing the bill to end the military's “Don't ask, don't tell” policy. Frankly, I'd feel more comfortable with Obama's crowing if it came from a president who actually served in our armed forces. While “don't ask, don't tell” and excluding gays and lesbians from the military seem wrong on the surface, there was a certain logic to it.

When I was in the military, men and women were kept in separate barracks. We trained separately. I suspect the reasoning had something to do with one gender being attracted to another.

Gay men are, by definition, attracted to other men. Wouldn't that create a problem in the barracks? Obama would have done better to simply make training and barracks living coed. That's what his ending “don't ask, don't tell” amounts to.

Where Obama really drove me nuts was with this line:

“At home, we are working to address and eliminate violence against LGBT individuals through our endorsement and implementation of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.”

Oh, are you now?

Neither Obama nor his minions who support “hate crimes” legislation can point to one “hate crime” that the Shepard-Byrd Act has prevented. Any gay or lesbian (or bisexual or transgender person, for that matter) who feels big, bad Obama is going to protect him or her from gay bashers is sadly mistaken. [The Washington Examiner, 6/8/11]