After a whirlwind lame duck session for the 111th Congress, it appears as though gays will soon be able to serve openly in the military. I must emphasize the modifier “soon”, as it is not yet safe to make your sexual orientation known in the service, and it won’t be until the Administration and the Pentagon completes their review process. None the less, this was a long time coming, and I am glad for those in uniform for whom the repeal of DADT means a kind of liberation. DADT was implemented before we started asking way too much of our military – multiple deployments to multiple simultaneous occupations, heavy fighting over stretches of months at a time, high casualty rates, etc. – and it has simply outlived its mandate, in addition to being dead wrong from the start.
That’s all good, but it’s just a step in the right direction. Gay Americans are still second-class citizens, barred from full civil rights as of this moment. As of now, there is an institutional necessity to allow gays to join the military – with an all-volunteer force like ours, we cannot wage two (or perhaps three) simultaneous wars without providing incentives to talented people of every persuasion to participate. The trouble is, when they return to civilian life (those who don’t choose to make the military a permanent career), they find themselves unable to marry, to raise a family, or to hold certain types of positions in some states. Not a dissimilar situation to that of the late 1940s, early 1950s, when black soldiers returned to the segregated south and a nearly equally racist north. My guess is that it’s just a matter of time before the crumbling edifice of discrimination against gays falls entirely to pieces.
It is worth saying, too, that while we’re now legislatively bound to start welcoming gays into our military, we might want to take this opportunity to consider more carefully what we’re asking our military to do. Right now, we are involved in two indefensible conflicts. This is not the fault of those who serve – this is the fault of our policy makers and, by extension, us. It gives me little satisfaction to know that, while gays need no longer serve in fear of exposure and expulsion, they are still compelled to participate in conflicts that are killing thousands while making us decidedly less safe from attack.
If we’re asking people – gay and straight – to sacrifice, let’s make certain it’s for a damn good reason… one good enough that each of us would be willing to sacrifice in kind.
luv u,
jp
