Gays in the Military

I was watching an episode of Boston Legal earlier with some friends and they touched on a very important issue. A highly decorated 30 year veteran of the Army was booted out because he came clean with his family that he was gay. Did you know that in 2005 the United States Army booted out 10,000 soldiers who violated the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Policy?

They then had to replace those soldiers at a cost of $350 billion dollars. It's no wonder this country is so in debt. If you read my articles you already know that a lot of soldiers and sailors are being booted out before they reach their ten year guaranteed retirement benefits mark and for reasons that make no sense. So you have to figure that if it costs $350 billion dollars to train 10,000 soldiers and if all branches of the Military are booting out hundreds of soldiers/sailors a year that the cost to replace them is staggering.

Almost every single country but ours gladly allows gay men and women to join the Military to serve their country. They don't care if you're gay or straight if you make it through basic training and want to serve your country then welcome aboard. Everyone wants to hate Middle Eastern Countries like Iran that put Homosexuals to death, but really America isn't that much better. Yeah we don't just come out and kill homosexuals but we sure do make it hard for them to live in the US.

Homosexuality has no effect on a person's ability to serve their country. I'm positive there are hundreds maybe even thousands of soldiers/sailors out there that are serving in the Military right now that are gay. I'm sure there are even Veterans that are gay. Of course if the Military ever found out they're Gay they'd strip them of their benefits or if they're active duty they'd give them a dishonorable discharge right away.

Homosexuals in this country find it hard to get Health Insurance, Life Insurance, jobs and they can't be themselves if they want to join the Military to defend the country they were born in. It's sad, and it makes me ashamed to be an American. I believe that homosexuals have every right to be treated like any other person in this country. Their sexual orientation should not effect their right as Americans to live a life enjoying the Freedoms this country is supposed to give us.

I understand that there are some religions that believe homosexuality is wrong and that they shouldn't be allowed to be married. That's fine. That's their belief and I won't ever say it's wrong for them to feel that way. What is wrong is trying to force one religions beliefs on an entire nation built on freedom of religion, which means freedom of ALL religions. Allowing Homosexuals to join the Military and allowing them to get married is not going to ruin the world.

Homosexuals getting married is their right. If they are in love they should be allowed to express that love by entering into married life. I don't expect churches to start performing marriages for homosexuals, and I wouldn't be angry if they refused. But for a government to refuse them that right is wrong. People get married all the time without doing it in a church and without the Christian God being mentioned.

And homosexuals fight for this country every single day, and out of the over 3000 soldiers killed over in Iraq I'm sure more than a few of them were Gay. Just because they didn't yell it to the world doesn't mean they weren't. Homosexuality isn't something new and I'm more than positive that millions of Homosexuals have died in battles on this planet over the centuries. Defending their countries, fighting for what was right or even fighting on the side of those we saw as wrong.

So their lives are okay when it comes to defending our country so long as we don't know they're gay, but when they come out they must be cast aside and they can't get married no matter what. How is that right? It's not, that's how. There were those who fought and still fight for the rights of different races. In many ways they've won the fight, but now a new fight must emerge. The fight for the rights of homosexuals.

Instead of this country wasting billions of dollars on training new soldiers to fight a battle that was already being fought by trained soldiers they should get rid of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Let homosexuals fight for their country and let them live as free Americans. It's time for the hate to stop. It's time for human beings to be human beings.

It wasn't that long ago that the American government refused to award medals to African American soldiers who fought, were injured/killed in the line of duty. It wasn't that long ago that they did the same thing to Japanese Americans. People speak out in anger against those injustices and yet this country is still committing such injustices. This time it's not against someone's race but against their lifestyle. A lifestyle they didn't choose. Just like a person can't choose to be of a certain race. It's time for peace, for trust, for love and for joy. Stop the hate.