” Maintaining “don’t ask, don’t tell” ignores a vast social shift since 1993. Only 26 percent of Americans supported Truman’s order, so it was little wonder that desegregation stalled. When President Clinton announced his initiative, 44 percent of Americans were in favor of homosexuals serving openly, which perhaps explains the split decision of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
But today nearly 80 percent of Americans feel that way. As our troops tend to reflect the values of our society, lifting the homosexual ban will be easier now.
In addition, six years of war have clarified priorities. The battlefield has its own values, starting with courage. Sexual orientation falls somewhere below musical taste. What a person chooses to do back stateside, off-duty, in his own apartment is irrelevant in a fight. For months I lived with 12 other American advisers on an Iraqi outpost. There was a single pipe shower next to a hole that masqueraded as a sewer. But the reality of combat dominated personality quirks — nobody wondered about sexual orientation. ” — Owen West, a commodities trader, who served two tours in Iraq with the Marines on why Don’t Ask- Don’t Tell has to go.
kiltnc
Thanks you Japhy for keeping this issue on the front page of Queerty as much as you have. Its seems other GLBT media outlets could care less.
Michael Bedwell
—–West means well, but in characterizing DADT as a “split decision” [i.e., each side got half of what they wanted], he is perpetuating the fatal myth that DADT is significantly better than the policies that preceded it, that gays are perfectly safe in the military as long as they remain celebates with their tongues cut out.
—-DADTDPDH has been a charade from the start, little different than what existed before save a catchy title: over 100,000 gays were discharged when out or outed BEFORE it, so the conceit that you “can” serve as long as they don’t know the truth about you is an intellectually and morally insulting joke.
—-Despite what its rules say, e.g., an investigation can only be launched after “credible” evidence that one is gay, the reality is in their breach. Bottomline: if a homophobic commander wants to find out if someone’s gay, he/she can, with impunity, do whatever they want, using any accusation, any event however empirically inconclusive on its face, e.g., being seen in a gay bar, as an excuse to ruthlessly dig deeper. If you are gay, even a virgin, but have left ANY trail….e.g., telling your family [it means “don’t tell” ANYONE], writing about it ANYWHERE [words = “telling” AND “act”], visiting a gay Website via a PC they can get their hands on [= a potential “propensity to engage in homosexuality”]….you WILL be crucified IF they want to.
—-West effectively throws kisses at Colin Powell and Sam Nunn when their recent seemingly conciliatory comments are more likely to have been made with the hope of getting a plum gay-friendly Obama administration job than any real remorse or change of their documented RABID homophobic opinions in 1993. Would one be applauding anyone who suggested Lincoln “review” how slavery was working? Grow up! Some villians are beyond redemption.
—-Ignoring the OpEd’s needless characterzation of all gays having superior musical taste, even if tongue-in-cheek, the author, in addition to having a limited understanding of the history of post Korea race relations in the military, essentially suggests that courage and effectiveness under fire is understood as more important than in the past when he actually means more soldiers now get that sexuality is less important ALL the time.
—-But quibbles with his writing aside [and perpetuation of the myth that DADT was simply Clinton’s failed strategy], his two key points hit the mark: banning gays from the military is counterproductive to national security and the successful integration of OUT gays into the military is ENTIRELY dependent on leadership STARTING WITH the Commander-in-Chief who should stop coddling the military and concentrate on convincing Congress to put a repeal bill on his desk.
Michael Bedwell
http://www.leonardmatlovich.com