Not Asking; Don't Want to Know

Whether gays should be allowed to serve in the armed services has been argued, discussed, laughed at and sometimes ignored.

The question is not whether gays should be allowed to serve their country in the military but why does anyone need to know whether they are gay or not.

It is illegal to discriminate against someone because of their sexual orientation in private industry so why is it any different in our nation's armed services?

I don't care if the person working on my car or my computer is gay, all I care about is do they know how to do the job I hired them to do.

Understand, I am not a proponent of the homosexual lifestyle. As a matter of fact, I believe it is a lifestyle that goes against nature and against God but that has no bearing on whether they should be allowed to serve in a particular vocation.

In this case, the U.S. military.

In private industry people are judged on their ability to perform their specific job. Their qualifications, aptitude, education and experience are what they are evaluated on not their sexual orientation.

So why is the military the only place that wants to know whether a person is gay?

I doubt if anyone in a war zone who is engaged in a hot battle and happens to be gay is thinking about having sexual activity with the person fighting next to him or her.

And by the same token I don't think a straight person in that same situation is thinking about sexual activity either.

So why the fuss?

Military life is such that a soldier is rarely alone in any given environment so there is little chance of someone receiving unwanted attention.

And if the truth were told, most sexual deviants are "straight" people.

So if anyone is to be feared it should be heterol sexual persons.

There are some occupations that sexual predators of any kind or persuasion should be screened out of. Those where children are involved should be especially prudent in the screening process.

But the military?

We are talking about grown men and women who should be able to take care of themselves very well. If they can't I certainly wouldn't want them to be defending the country.

The truth is, the armed services' attitude toward gays in the military is outdated, biased and illegal by civilian standards.

It is time that the military adopted a 21^st century attitude toward gays in the military.

Don't get me wrong, I am not promoting the practice of gay servicemen walking hand-in-hand across the military base but I am promoting allowing gays to serve and defend their country like anyone else.

As an American citizen it is their right.