Wrong on Gays in the Military

Wrong on Gays in the Military
By Jonathan Capehart
copyright by The Washington Post
April 15, 2009; 5:16 PM ET
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/04/wrong_on_gays_in_the_military.html


Alright, I've had it! Had it with the antiquated arguments against gays serving openly in the military espoused today on The Post’s Op Ed page by James J. Lindsay, Jerome Johnson, E.G. "Buck" Shuler Jr., and Joseph Went. Gay men and lesbians should be allowed to serve. They should be allowed to serve openly. And they should be allowed to serve with the honor and dignity such service entails.

Let's get one thing straight (as it were): The retired military honchos got it wrong in their second paragraph when they wrote, "The administration and some in Congress have pledged to repeal Section 654 of U.S. Code Title 10, which states that homosexuals are not eligible for military service. Often confused with the ‘don't ask, don't tell' regulations issued by President Bill Clinton, this statute establishes several reasons that homosexuality is incompatible with military service."

For all intents and purposes, Section 654 of U.S. Code Title 10 is "don't ask, don't tell."

They also belittle the inclusion of gays in the armed forces of our allies by picking on Denmark, the Netherlands and Canada. All are fine nations, but they don't conjure up the chest-thumping machismo you might get when you hear Israel, Italy or Great Britain. Gays and lesbians serve openly in those countries, too.

Most irksome is the writers’ reliance on worn out rationales for excluding gays in the military. "Team cohesion and concentration on missions would suffer," they wrote, “if our troops had to live in close quarters with others who could be sexually attracted to them." Their argument presumes that every homosexual in the armed forces is on the make. As if!

Sirs, gay men and lesbians are serving in the United States military right now. They wear the uniform because, to paraphrase paragraph 5 of Section 654 of U.S. Code Title 10, they want "to make extraordinary sacrifices, including the ultimate sacrifice, in order to provide for the common defense." They wear the uniform because they want to defend the ideals, laws and values of the United States against all enemies. They wear the uniform because they love their country.