There have been gays in the military for as long as we have had one. They just had to pretend they weren’t gay. They were banned because there was a time when too many of our troops were uncomfortable enough about gays to justify it. The same reason was previously used to discriminate against women and blacks. When our civilian leadership decides that the number of people who dislike blacks or women or gays is no longer large enough to justify discrimination then we change the rules.
One of the issues that always comes up is sharing showers. The reason the gay guys in the shower aren’t grabbing anyone’s ass is not because there is a DADT rule, it’s because they aren’t ass grabbers. Changing that rule isn’t going to lead to mass ass grabbing in the showers. There is a word for people who like to have sex with people who don’t want them to, that word is rapist. Somehow I must have missed the epidemic of homosexual rape in the British/Canadian/Aussie armies. It didn’t happen there and it won’t happen here. Of course there will be some concerns and difficulties in implementing this, but it won’t be long before it becomes old news.
The default position in America is against discrimination so it takes a large hurdle to over come that. As soon as we can operate without some form of open discrimination we are obligated to do so. All men created equal etc. So the idea that we can’t make a change that all of the other real armies (Brits, Canadians, Aussies) have successfully made until there is 100% proof that it won’t chafe anyone’s cones is wrong. There is no right for anyone to serve in a gay free military, or one where we say they can serve as long as they don’t act gay. We have removed one of the very last instances of systemic discrimination left in our society, we should be proud of that.
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