Defense Secretary Robert Gates who appeared on Fox News Sunday was asked about continued funding of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” despite Obama’s plan to repeal the controversial policy.

“Well continues to be the law, and any change in the policy would require a change in the law. We will follow the law whatever it is. That dialogue, though, has really not progressed very far at this point in the administration. I think the president and I feel like we’ve got a lot on our plates right now and let’s push that one down the road a little bit.”

Aubrey Sarvis, Executive Director of Servicemen’s Legal Defense Network (SLDN) responded to Gates’ statement…

Sec. Gates hardly gave a sound reason for kicking ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ down the road — or essentially back tracking on a campaign promise made by his Commander in Chief. I trust the secretary was not speaking for President Obama, who, hopefully, will issue the call for repeal when he sends his Defense Department budget to Congress in a few weeks. This is about timely leadership … It’s also called multitasking. Right now is the time — while we’re engaged in two wars — we need the most qualified men and women serving. This is not the time to keep firing linguists and intelligence analysts because of their sexual orientation. The longer the president and Pentagon delay the issue, the fewer linguists and intelligence analysts the Pentagon will have to call on to fight terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan.”

Trekkies! Christians! And Atheists, oh my! In last night’s hysterical episode of Family Guy, series creator Seth MacFarlane doesn’t spare the rod in “Not all Dogs go to Heaven,” and we are all much better for it. Particularly us Trekkies — I mean Trekkers — as the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation lend their voices to the show.

And for our international brethren…

Here in the U.S. the time is almost upon us! Please show your support for the Earth by switching off your lights (and any other electronics you can live without) from 8:30 to 9:30 this evening, and send a message to our leaders that we need to act now against climate change.

Earth Hour began in 2007 in Sydney Australia where 2.7 million switched off their lights. The following year the movement had gone global and an estimated 50 million people participated in 35 countries and over 370 cities.

Please join us. We can do better. We have to.

Lot’s happening on the marriage equality front, not all of it bad…

As reported yesterday, Vermont Governor Jim Douglas held a press conference indicating he would not support a marriage equality bill passed overwhelming by the state Senate, citing that the current economic crisis took precedence over such legislation. Watch the press conference below:

Also yesterday, same-sex civil union legislation was effectively killed in Hawaii, despite a majority of Senators supporting the measure, falling three short of the nine members required to bring it up for a full vote.

But there was good news in New Hampshire today as their House of Representatives voted to send their same-sex marriage bill to the Senate by a slim margin of 186-179.

The Rev. V. Gene Robinson, who delivered the invocation at President Obama’s inaugural celebration said this about the House vote…

“I am delighted, because it’s clear to me that New Hampshire values one class of citizenship and not two … And I’m delighted that (the bill) threatens people of faith in no way.”

Unfortunately New Hampshire governor John Lynch, a Democrat, does not support the measure, and will likely veto the legislation if it reaches his desk.