I could fill this entry with hyperlinks to news articles about Obama’s push to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and the predictable conservative opposition, but if you’re that out of touch with current events you probably don’t read blogs either.<\/p>\n
DADT, summed up, says that being openly gay is grounds for discharge.\u00a0 Therefore any gay who comes out while in uniform has clearly broken the rule and must be discharged.<\/p>\n
Some arguments against DADT:<\/p>\n
DADT (which never put much of a dent in gay witch-hunting) has been a travesty.\u00a0 It’s clearly wrong and should be repealed.\u00a0 We’ve wasted far too much time investigating and prosecuting people for things that have no impact on mission accomplishment.<\/p>\n
We veterans like to brag on the military for leading the way in racial integration in the late 1940s and early 1950s, forgetting that President Truman had to order us to desegregate, that the firestorms of protest were far greater than those we’re seeing today over repealing DADT, and that even after Truman integrated the military we fought it for years, kicking and screaming all the way.\u00a0 But we did it, it worked, we’re better for it . . . and it was the right thing to do.<\/p>\n
I realize this part of my argument has no validity, but hypocrisy infuriates me, and when it comes to homosexuality the military spells Hypocrisy with a capital H.\u00a0 When I attended Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk one of my seminar mates was a lesbian army officer.\u00a0 She never declared, of course, but it was obvious enough, and if anyone had any doubts they were dispelled when she brought her girlfriend to graduation.\u00a0 She was a good officer, she loved the military, she did her job well, and no one objected . . . not her seminar mates, nor any AFSC officials, nor her army superiors.\u00a0 In spite of a few high-visibility prosecutions of lesbian military members over the years, in general the military tolerates their presence.\u00a0 Male homosexuals, on the other hand, have almost always been, and continue to be, vigorously sought out and discharged.<\/p>\n
The opposition argument de jour<\/em> is that there’s a war on and this is not the time to impose social experimentation on the military.\u00a0 There’s always<\/em> a war on, and even when there isn’t, the opposition will still say this is not the time.\u00a0 That’s what they said when Truman desegregated the military.\u00a0 What they meant, and what they mean now, is that it will never be the time.<\/p>\n Sometimes you simply have to overrule objections and do what is right.\u00a0 Now is the time to do what is right.<\/p>\n Update (11:02 pm): <\/em><\/span>reader Gwen posted a link in the comment below that contradicts what I said about the military being more tolerant of female than male homosexuality.\u00a0 It appears my experience was the exception, not the rule.\u00a0 I do think, however, that DADT set up a system whereby anyone could accuse anyone else of homosexuality (with impunity and no threat of having to face the accused), automatically setting the process of investigation, prosecution, and discharge in motion . . . and that perhaps DADT has made things worse for gays in the military than they were before DADT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I could fill this entry with hyperlinks to news articles about Obama’s push to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and the predictable conservative opposition, but if you’re that out of touch with current events you probably don’t read blogs either. DADT, summed up, says that being openly gay is grounds for discharge.\u00a0 Therefore any gay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-military","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3558"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3613,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558\/revisions\/3613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}