Cleveland, Curveballs and Common Sense Putting 2 and 2 together since 1987.

Kill all the f*gs that don’t agree

This may be a slightly controversial post (heck, it’s already a slightly controversial title – my first censor!), but I feel there are some things that need to be said. Last week, in his first State of the Union address, President Obama promised a resolution to a somewhat old, somewhat under-the-radar issue:

This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. It’s the right thing to do.

With the economy in the tank, the healthcare bill on life support and his approval numbers free-falling, what Obama did here was clearly distraction politics, getting Americans focused on something where Obama was not at a low point.

But that said, the issue was brought up, and immediately was picked up by the Democratic majority looking for a win (with a major Colin Powell endorsement today), so it’ll be an issue at least for the foreseeable future.

Make no mistake: it’s an important issue. The number of public (that is, “outed”) homosexuals in the United States is estimated as high as 22% and growing, due to homosexuality’s increased (although incomplete) acceptance into the social norm.

For a long time, gay people have wanted to serve their country in the armed forces, an admirable desire to be sure. For decades, gay people had faced persecution, hatred and witch hunts when serving in the military. On July 20, 1993, Bill Clinton reached what he called a compromise, allowing gay people to serve in the military, provided they…you know, didn’t do “gay things”. Clinton said he wasn’t happy with it, but some level of change was necessary and the Joint Chiefs would not budge further than they did. The executive order allowed gay people to serve in the military legally, albeit secretly, and would end the investigations that cost millions of taxpayer dollars.

Why was the compromise necessary? Clinton justified it as “protecting the morale” of the heterosexual troops.

I’ll say that again: “Don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue” was originally ordered to “protect” the heterosexual bigots who had a problem serving with gays in the military. This is rather like opening a school that’s only open to white people, to protect them from the other races.

As I think about it, it’s amazing to me that such discrimination was (and is) considered tolerable for so long. But whereas racism had it’s “Rosa Parks moment” (with the actual Rosa Parks moment itself), homophobia has never had such a story. Seemingly no one wants to talk about homosexuality – maybe it’s harder to understand than race, maybe it’s just a more delicate subject (you can really only be openly black, for example; there is no “in the closet” for being black).

In any case, President Obama is right: it’s time to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Until it is scientifically proven that a gay person can’t shoot a gun as accurately as a straight person, until it’s proven that a gay person is less patriotic than a straight person, until it’s proven that a straight person can actually get AIDS just by being in the same foxhole as a gay person, there should be no difference in how gay people are treated vs. how straight people are treated in the United States military.

Not only is it time we stop censoring gays in the military, but it’s time we stop protecting bigots in the military. I don’t think the problem is as widespread as some would have you believe, but the fact is that some straight people (in all circles, not just the military) are homophobic and this leads to acts based in fear, discomfort or anger. These acts should be punished in the military just as they are in normal society: nothing but respect should be tolerated in the military.

And conversely, while gay people should be allowed to openly serve in the military, they should do so with professionalism. Being in the military is a job, in fact it’s the most important job there is, and it should be treated with the same professionalism that one would treat a corporate job with an HR department and performance reviews.

So there it is. For those of you who know me, this post may come as a surprise to you since I’m not siding with Republicans (or most conservatives) on this matter. But honestly, the more I thought about this issue the more I came to realize that one’s sexual preference should not take precedence over one’s desire to serve. That doesn’t mean “Don’t ask, don’t tell”; it means diversity should be embraced and celebrated (to use the Office cliché), while discrimination and homophobia (or xenophobia, or whatever) should be discouraged and punished.

---

Note: A couple times while writing this article I made a typo and typed “Don’t ask, don’t Dell”. I think Apple should use this as their marketing slogan and I’m willing to talk price whenever.

Another note: The title, like many of my blog posts, is a lyric from a song I enjoy, “Holiday”, by Green Day. Take nothing more from it than that.