Gateway republished - US army still can't handle the gays

At this year’s VMAs, Lady Gaga arrived wearing a dress and chapeau made of meat, with an entourage of four gay former service members. It was an act of protest against the American military’s policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT), under which gay and lesbian soldiers were discharged because of their sexual orientation. The law was sort of repealed back on May 27, pending a study by the Department of Defense. As part of the study, the DoD distributed a survey in order to gauge soldiers’ responses to the repeal of DATD.

The survey, which leaked online over the summer, asks service members a variety of questions to determine their feelings about the possibility of having gay unit members.

One question asks, “Did you ever serve in combat with a service member of any rank whom you believed to be homosexual?” It is quickly followed by another question that asks, “How much did the belief that the service member was gay or lesbian affect the unit’s combat performance?”

The implications are as obvious as they are ludicrous — a person’s sexual orientation, whether actual or simply suspected, will affect not only their own performance, but the performance of those surrounding them.

The Log Cabin Republicans, an American lobby group of gay Republicans, has been an active force in bringing about the end of DADT. They estimate that 13,500 people have lost their positions within the U.S. Army based on their sexual orientation since the law’s inception in 1994. That’s an enormous loss to a nation that is currently involved in major military operations in two countries. Is Uncle Sam so set in his ways that he can afford to give that many able-bodied people the old heave-ho because of their sexual orientation?

Even though repealing the DADT was featured in Obama’s presidential campaign, he should receive no credit for this push towards finally achieving equality. As the leader and main executive power of the U.S., Obama has made the very responsible decision to pass the buck all the way over to Congress, although he could have repealed DADT very easily with an executive order. Earlier this month, Californian judge Virginia A. Philips had the proverbial cajones to rule the law violated the constitution on multiple counts, although that should have been glaringly obvious to anyone with a functioning cerebral cortex and a basic moral compass from the outset. Even so, it’s a hollow sort of victory, considering a repeal of DADT was passed in May 2010.

Handing out paperwork doesn’t make the law any less unconstitutional; instead, it underlines how offensive and discriminatory DADT is, and signals another constructed delay in the push for equal rights. If the U.S. Military’s survey had asked about service members’ feelings about black or Jewish soldiers, there would have been an immediate and justifiable outrage.

There is no rational argument that can be made for DADT’s continuation and this survey doesn’t serve to represent the interests of the members of the United States Army.

The survey obviously isn’t about maintaining lines of communication with the troops; instead, it’s a clear example of bigotry surrounding the DADT policy. It sends a message, something idiotic that one might find pasted to the side of heavy machinery: “Keep limbs away from moving parts. Do not attempt to stop machine with genitalia. Do not operate in the presence of alternative sexualities.”

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the clusterfuck surrounding it makes one thing abundantly clear: there’s only one group that scares the United States Army more than the terrorists, and that’s the gays.

http://thegatewayonline.ca/articles/opinion/2010/09/16/us-army-still-cant-handle-gays