The Case for Repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell

"You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight," penned conservative Republican Senator Barry Goldwater in an Op-Ed piece almost two decades ago."Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar." And if history has any way of correcting itself, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, a stop-gap compromise instituted by the Clinton administration meant to keep homosexuals closeted within the armed services, will be repealed after it ends a labyrinthian unraveling process on Capitol Hill.

In the years since the law first went into effect in 1993, almost 14,000 troops have been discharged from the military under this policy. These however are not faceless numbers, rather they are patriotic men and women who choose to wear the uniform and to fight for this country yet happen to be gay. These are much needed Arabic translators, and pilots and medics, and yes, food service workers, much like the ones you encounter every day in your workplace, or church, or school or supermarket.

The issue of excluding gays from the military is a divisive topic, meant to instill and cultivate a culture of bigotry trickled-down from the federal government itself. Much like racial segregation, the notion of separating two groups based on fear and intolerance is a faulty premise at best. At worst, it is out and out discrimination.

One of the loudest arguments against repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell is that the military is stretched too thin while fighting two wars on foreign soil and cannot handle the added stress of inculcating an unknown variable in the heat of battle. But, isn't that precisely the time that we need more boots on the ground? With an ongoing war on terror that appears to have no light at the end of the tunnel, it begs to question at what point does the dialog to end this policy start? Given a protracted peace, the implicit urgency for more soldiers may have passed; a repeal would undeniably increase the ranks of fighting men and women.

In a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting on the topic this Tuesday, top ranking military official and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen supported a repeal of the decades-old exclusionary law saying that service members should not be forced to "lie about who they are." And that's exactly what it comes down to: half-truths and obfuscation. Goldwater hit the proverbial nail on the head when he alluded to gays in the military as an open secret. To say that they are not already serving and protecting our freedoms is to have one's head in the sand in self-denial.

Perhaps the shame of having to confront our own individual issues regarding gays is harder to bear than just allowing them to voluntarily fight to protect our right to harbor those issues. With up to 75% of Americans now supporting a repeal of the ban, the momentum is clearly on the side of reform. Currently there are 31 countries that allow homosexuals to serve openly in the military, including 20 of the 26 nations that make up NATO. To claim that there is no precedence for gays fighting side by side with straights is unsubstantiated. Conversely, some of the very countries that the United States has the largest ideological differences with, including North Korea, Cuba, and Iran, prohibit gays from serving in the trenches. When it comes down to the company that you keep, we appear to be on the wrong side of history.

Gay people do not choose their sexuality, nor did they choose this particular battle at this particular time. Gays pay taxes, and raise children, and currently volunteer to fight in secrecy and celibacy for a country that would otherwise deny them the right to be themselves. The time for gays to serve openly in the military is now. I believe this as an American and as a gay man.