Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell…

Why do we tell them not to serve?

The debate about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has been reignited. The House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee held a hearing on Wednesday and listened to testimony relating to the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell Review.”

The absolute truth is that the United States military is the only employer in the United States that is allowed to openly discriminate based on sexual orientation. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is a policy that needs to be changed, and the time for change is now.

The reason behind the current policy is the belief that openly homosexual service members “create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability.” The rationale for the law is that it does not discriminate against homosexuals because it only prohibits discloser of sexual orientation or homosexual acts.

Each year an estimated 3,000 gay and lesbian service members leave the military instead of conforming to a policy of silence. Since 1994 the military has spent 363 million discharging over 12,000 service members for being homosexual.

The idea that openly homosexual military members will be detrimental to until cohesion is a completely falsehood. Military members follow a chain of command, and are required to follow orders without hesitation. These orders may include working with fellow service members that may not have the same belief structure or values as themselves. Military members must follow the commands of male or female superior officers. Military members of all faiths, creeds and races work alongside each other.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell absolutely is a civil rights issue, and it is absolutely an issue of military necessity. This has parallels to when the military was desegregated, during a time when much of the United States was still segregated. However this is not, as many proponents of a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell state, the last civil rights issue. There are still issues of racism and sexism in our country, and homophobia and anti-homosexual activism is just one of our fights for equal civil rights for all of American’s citizens.

With that said, many of the arguments being made today against allowing homosexuals to join the military ranks, are the same arguments made against racial integrating the military. It is not the military’s purpose to set or decide what is socially acceptable. It is the military responsibility to adapt.

According to a recent poll 75% of Americans believe that homosexuals should be allowed to serve in the military, up from 62% in 2001 and 44% in 1993.

During the course of writing this blog I have refrained from invoking my service in the military, but on this occasion I feel it is warranted. I cannot speak about the officer community, but I can speak about the enlisted community. Also, I do not speak for the views of all veterans; I can only speak for my views.

During my time in the military I served with several homosexual and bisexual service members and many of them where fine examples of professionalism and probably the most impressive military member I have ever met is a homosexual. There are already a significant percentage of homosexuals serving in the military, and a significant portion of strait military members know of a homosexual service member. In some military communities there are already openly homosexual services members, in which their fellow service members and supervisors are aware of their sexual orientation and consider it to be only the unit’s business.

I find it personally insulting that some have the assumption that service members are not professional enough to serve with openly homosexual and bisexual service members. That would insinuate that military members of the Christian faith could not serve with military members of the Muslim faith. In the military your personal values and morals are you own, but when you take the oath upon enlistment you take an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States not any other document or belief.

It is also insulting to the GLBT community to assert that they are not professional enough to serve openly and conduct themselves professionally, and to presume that they would somehow force their sexuality on others.

Why do we tell them not to serve? Because there are still those that believe that homosexuals do not qualify to serve in the armed forces. That somehow the difficulties and adaptations that the military had to make to adjust to de-segregation and allowing women to serve are too much for the military to handle. The United States of America has the greatest military in history, yet some want us to believe that it cannot figure out how to allow homosexuals to serve?

It was suggested during the hearings that serving in the military is a privilege and not a right. This is true. However, ever American has the right not to be discriminated against. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell needs to end. No question about it.