Friday, a federal court judge ruled that the military had violated the constitutional rights of Major Margaret Witt, a decorated former U.S. Air Force flight nurse. U.S. District Court Judge Ronald B. Leighton ordered the reinstatement of Major Witt, who was discharged after revealing that she is gay under the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. Defended by the ACLU, Judge Leighton noted that her former colleagues had testified it was her removal, not her sexual orientation, that proved disruptive and damaging to morale.
If returned to the service, Major Witt would be the first openly gay person to lawfully serve in the military.
Because biographical plays opened in two cities this past weekend, and the movie about his life opens this coming friday - as I think about Major Witt, my thoughts wander to another free speech and equal rights advocate who was also successfully defended by the ACLU - Allen Ginsburg.
The sexual and homosexual content of Allen Ginsberg's movement defining poem, "Howl", led to a landmark free speech case.
Judge Clayton W. Horn in San Francisco Municipal Court ruled that Howl and Other Poems contained “redeeming social importance” and was therefore protected by the First Amendment. “The authors of the First Amendment knew that novel and unconventional ideas might disturb the complacent, but they chose to encourage a freedom which they believed essential if vigorous enlightenment was ever to triumph over slothful ignorance,” Horn wrote in the unpublished opinion.
Celebrate the spirit and bravery of Major Margaret Witt, Allen Ginsberg and their defenders by listening to a 1956 reading of "Howl", the year before Ginsburg was arrested, tried, and aquitted.