DADT: IT’S TIME TO LET GAY TROOPS SERVE!

It’s time to repeal DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL and let openly gay troops serve in the military!

Those are the findings of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen, after a long and drawn out battle that is sure to encounter plenty more opposition.

The controversial measure of DADT was implemented during the Clinton presidency as a compromise of sorts — allowing gays to serve in the military, so long as they didn’t publicly identify themselves as gay or lesbian.  For many years the U.S. military conducted “witch hunts” which outed and dishonorably discharged anyone discovered to be gay.  So the initiative reached during the Clinton years was somewhat of a band-aid.  But that was 20 years ago.  Now, anyone with a brainwave and a heartbeat can clearly see that any attempt to continue denying gays the right to serve in the military in 2010 is nothing short of discrimination.

Conservative critics against gays in the military have long fooled themselves into thinking there are none already there.  War hero and Republican Sen. John McCain has often led the opposition to allowing gays to serve openly in the military, using his own personal beliefs on religion and morality to affect him, claiming it would affect morale (as if soldiers being ambushed in Afghanistan are more concerned with who the soldier next to them is sleeping with, versus dodging explosives and saving each others lives). This is similar to the old argument that once kept blacks out of the military, which also claimed (at the time) that allowing them would impede on morale.  But McCain and others have tried to string DADT along through as much red tape and delay tactics as possible. Except their time may have just run out.

First, McCain said that he believes military leaders should decide if gays should serve openly or not, and he would support their decision.  So the Commander-In-Chief (President Obama), the Defense Secretary (Robert Gates), and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Admiral Mike Mullen) all said they support letting gays serve in the military.  But that wasn’t good enough.  Then McCain said he thought a study should be commissioned to measure the affect gays in the military would have on existing combat troops.  So an extensive study was launched, culminating yesterday in a report that said gays in the military would have little to no affect on troops, and that in fact 9 out of every 10 soldiers even supported letting gays serve openly.  Even the general public supports the repeal of DADT 72% to 23%.  So what now, McCain?

For all the soldiers who have been forced to go on multiple back-to-back tours of duty, keeping them constantly in harms way and consistently away from their families — or for those soldiers who have come within an inch of losing their life numerous times while dodging bullets, hand grenades and suicide bombers — probably the last thing on their minds is if the person next to them has sex with boys or girls.  If gay or lesbian Americans are willing to put their lives on the line to protect the United States, then we should all be happy and eager to let them, not the other way around.

And so now, there are no more excuses.  Military leaders have spoken in favor of it, combat troops have polled in favor of it, the majority of Americans say they’re OK with it, and a non-partisan study says it should happen. Secretary Gates has asked congress to repeal DADT and to vote to allow gays into the military by the end of the year.  But are the conservative bigots finally ready to give up their opposition and move forward into the 21st Century — or are they just getting warmed up to continue to do battle?