I am in complete agreement with President Obama and Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (as well as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Michigan Senator, Carl Levin), that the law “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” needs to be repealed. In fact it should never have been instituted in the first place. I also think it was extremely noble and courageous of President Obama to include it as a request and challenge to the military in his first State of the Union address.
President Bill Clinton was the first president to attempt to lift the ban on gays in the military in his first month in office. But he received such a backlash from the military and General, Colin Powell, that Clinton and his administration had to “compromise” with the flimsy policy of allowing gays to serve in the military as long as they kept their sexuality to themselves. This is only a small step removed from denial and was a sadly uncourageous solution to the problem. The solution is to allow people to be themselves without prejudice of any sort. Like any other personal or genetic characteristic, one’s sexuality should have no bearing on the performance of one’s duty, and that includes the military, even in time of war. It is not surprising that the military is still resisting this initiative. Even though the military is to be greatly admired for the service and sacrifice of its personnel in uniform, it has also been guilty of machismo attitudes and behavior. This continued resistance to openly gay men and women within its ranks is yet another example of that prejudice and suppression (Senator John McCain's position of support to continue the policy (until and unless it is repealed by congress) is an example of that.).
The general resistance to allowing gays to openly serve in the military is also an example of another civil right that society as a whole is too slow to embrace.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/27/obama.gays.military/index.html
http://www.keyc.com/node/33262
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