With countries like Britain, France and Canada all welcoming gay and lesbian individuals in its military, it is beyond ridiculous that a country that considers itself the leader of the free world forces many of its soldiers to lie about themselves to their brothers-and-sisters in arms.
For a short period this month, the military’s policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” was effectively repealed, temporarily putting America on the same level as its military allies. A federal judge ordered that the military could no longer enforce the policy on Oct. 12. However, on Oct. 20, a federal appeals court overturned that order, making being openly gay in the military illegal once again.
The policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” sets the American military’s social policies miles behind the majority of its allies. This is the 21st century — whether they believe that people are born gay and should be accepted for who and what they are, or that homosexuality is an immoral choice made by certain people — Americans need to deal with the existence of GLBT individuals in our country. America is embarrassingly behind the rest of the civilized world in this regard.
Officials worried that allowing openly homosexual individuals would scare off those who don’t approve of homosexuality, or that a sudden rush of honesty about such matters would be disruptive to the military process.
When the bans were finally lifted, no major problems resulted. The military did not suddenly shrink in size and chaos was not a result. Even in countries like Israel and Germany, allowing openly gay individuals into their military had no lasting negative effect.
Since “don’t ask, don’t tell” came into effect in 1994, 13,000 American military personnel have been discharged because of their sexuality. That’s significantly more fighting power lost due to prejudice and fear than America’s 4,200 casualties in Iraq.
The American military needs every soldier, sailor and Marine it can get in order to end the two wars it is currently undertaking. The Pentagon cannot afford to discharge thousands of servicemen simply because they are in a minority group — and it certainly cannot afford to lose countless man hours on “don’t ask, don’t tell” proceedings.
It is time for our country to take its cue from the rest of the civilized world and allow every citizen who is willing and able to serve in the military to do so without the fear of being discharged for petty, inconsequential reasons.
Casey Goodwin is a mechanical engineering sophomore and may be reached at [email protected].
I concur. Outside of the emotional benefits (spouses/partners being able to be with them, being notified of injury or death, and all that jazz) it really seems a bit of a matter of making political statements about homosexuality. I feel DADT should be repealed but its not a priority at the moment and should only be repealed once we're in either an official peacetime or mandated cease-fire. There doesn't seem to be a shortage of soldiers so why train/prepare more soldiers to send in when we're supposedly trying to bring the ones we already have out there in the warzone home? If they're going to repeal DADT then they should do it in an organized efficient fashion that can be executed seamlessly and without any issues (shower/sleeping arrangements, officer conduct, and so forth are all issues to be thought through, it may seem a bit immature to assume all of the soldiers will have issues bunking and showering with homosexuals but it would be foolish to assume there won't be any at all who have issues with them, its an accident just waiting to happen given the nature of the general type of people who end up serving in the military.)