How Obama Just Snuck a Homo Inside the Defense Department

Given the Pentagon is responsible for investigating soldiers and enforcing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, you might think its own staffers would, under the law passed by Congress and applying to the entire armed forces, be subject to the policy. But there’s a difference between military staffers and civilian employees, which explains how the Senate on Thursday was able to confirm Douglas Wilson, a gay man, as Obama’s new assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.

Wilson joins two other homos (Cynthia Atwood and David Mills) among the Senate’s just-approved list of 27 presidential nominees. But it’s Wilson who’s most curious, since he’ll be working inside the very government department charged with removing openly gay soldiers from service.

No stranger to political posts, Wilson held the title of “deputy assistant secretary for public affairs” during Bill Clinton’s administration, relays DC Agenda. His new post in the public affairs department means he’ll be an “adviser and assistant to the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense for public information, internal information, community relations, information training, and audiovisual matters.”

Which boils down to: He’ll help out when the Pentagon needs to deal with the public. Which, you might have heard, is happening a lot lately.