The gay thing - Part 1: Gays in the military (c)

Part 1: Gays in the military

c. Social implications

There are all sorts of surveys and statistics to show that homosexuals would experience discrimination if openly serving in the military. This would would in turn diminish unit morale and cohesion. All of that is true, and none of it matters.


The fact of the matter is that the objection to homosexuals is no greater than objections to an interracial military, female service members, or even acceptance of multiple religions. All of these face discrimination, and all discrimination reduces unit cohesion.

If cohesion were such a great concern to military readiness, shouldn't we have an army of all white male celibate upper middle class protestants who played on the high school football team? Even if we could gather such a force sufficient to serve the nation's interests, would it be in our interest to have such a segregated force?

Our nation was founded in no small part on the concept of individual liberty. It's not about majority rule, but the rule of individual rights. If our military does not reflect that, than we are not living up to those values.

If the rules change, there will of course be consequences. I mean serious consequences. There will be hazing, hostile work environments, discrimination, and yes even sexual assaults and murders. Moreover, it will come at a great expense of time and training resources to educate the troops on the policies, and implement controls to mitigate these consequences.

The question then becomes, is it worth it? The answer if you haven't already guessed is yes. Why is it worth it? This is a tricky answer, so please pay very close attention:


PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS ARE NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT'S BUSINESS.

The government should not care who you're humping while in the military because the government should not care who you are humping. Really hard concept isn't it? I'll get into that more in part 2.

Of all the social concerns our military faces, homosexuality is a relatively minor one (well behind gender and geekdom). Our military must represent our society, not what a bunch of self righteous whack jobs want our society to be.