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The Rainbow Clause:
Giving us the right to choose who; where; when; why; and how.
For Love of Country
Gay soldiers fight for all the same reasons
straight soldiers do. So why aren't our gay soldiers afforded the same respect?
In 1993, then-President Bill Clinton attempted
to repeal the ban that existed on gay men and lesbian women serving in the
United States military. His efforts were met with resounding opposition.
His compromise, the now infamous "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, was intended
to give gay and lesbian soldiers equality in the military. Military recruiters
and senior officers are not permitted to ask about a soldier's sexual preference;
in return, gay and lesbian soldiers are not permitted to volunteer that
information. The policy has largely backfired. American soldiers live in
close quarters with one another and their personal lives are often the subject
of conversation. Disallowing gay soldiers from discussing their partners
back home created a whole new kind of discrimination, one that suggested
that gays should be embarrassed by their lifestyles.
Don't Ask, Don't Tell is still the status quo,
and gay soldiers who openly admit their sexual orientation must be dismissed
from the military under the law. However, now that the United States is at
war, the military has suspended this policy, retaining openly gay soldiers
and sending them into active combat. The issue of homosexuality is not addressed
until after the soldier's tour of duty has completed; in other words, gay
and lesbian soldiers are allowed to risk their lives for their countries,
but face disciplinary action and dismissal from the armed forces upon their
return home. The military claims that this is being done to prevent soldiers
from claiming to be gay to prevent being deployed, but because the Don't
Ask, Don't Tell law does not make an exception for combat conditions, it
would appear that this practice is unconstitutional.
USA Today reports that since the law was enacted
in 1993 more than 10,000 gay and lesbian soldiers have been forced out of
the military. Our country has approximately 2.5 million enlisted military
personnel, and by comparison 10,000 may seem like a small number. But the
Defense Department has spent $191 million recruiting and training the
replacements for these soldiers, many of whom had vital - and rare - skills
such as a fluency in Arabic. At a time when the U.S. military is struggling
to meet its recruitment quotas, disregarding so many able-bodied and experienced
soldiers on the basis of something as trivial as sexual orientation seems
particularly foolish.
The answer it seems is to allow gays and lesbians
to not only serve in the military, but to serve openly. After all, some studies
show that as many as 65,000 gay men and lesbians are already serving their
country, albeit from the closet. A 2004 Annenburg Public Policy Center poll
found that 80% of all Americans favor allowing gays to serve in the military,
up 50% from 1993. Two-thirds of those answered "yes" when asked if they should
be able to serve openly. More than half of all junior level enlisted men
and women polled - the group that is largely identified as those who would
never tolerate gay colleagues - said that they would be unbothered by gays
serving openly.
Perhaps the most compelling argument for gay
and lesbian soldiers serving openly is the precedence set by Great Britain
and other NATO countries. Britain's military adopted an anti-harassment policy
in 2000 stating that all gay and lesbian soldiers serving in the British
Armed Forces had the right to be open about their sexuality without fear
of discrimination or punishment. Senior level officers were outraged and
many of the same arguments alive and well in the U.S. now - morale will suffer,
recruitment will plummet - were heard in the U.K. as well. Five years later,
the British military is operating just fine. Recruitment has not suffered
in the slightest, straight and gay soldiers work together without tension,
and instances of sexual misconduct are not any more prevalent among gay service
men and women as they are among their straight counterparts.
The fact remains that what makes a good soldier
has nothing to do with his or her sexual orientation. By refusing to acknowledge
the talents of its gay and lesbian soldiers, the United States military is
effectively shooting itself in the foot.
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