No sooner had President Clinton announced his intention to fulfill a campaign promise and eliminate discrimination against gays and lesbians in the armed forces than legions of politicians began parading before the ever-available nation’s media. While a few praised the President’s actions, the majority came armed with an almost predictable list of rationales why such a policy change would never work and prophesying the imminent ruination of our country’s military effectiveness if implemented.
While some of their concerns were legitimate and must be addressed, many were sorely lacking merit and a fundamental understanding of gay and lesbian lifestyles. Meanwhile, the subject quickly dominated newspapers, television and talk shows across the nation.
Much of the rhetoric seemed to harkened back to the dire predictions voiced when President Truman ordered the integration of the armed forces more than forty years ago. Yet, today’s armed forces, with a great number of African-Americans and more women than ever before, remain the world’s finest.
It’s interesting that in private many of the loudest critics candidly admit no direct knowledge of they types of variant behavior they insist will occur and, in fact, many of them willing admit they have worked or served with homosexuals without incident.
Yet, scarcely a week later, when three young thugs, members of the Marine Corps, singled out a 19-year old and beat him senseless simply because he was gay, there was a deafening silence from the vast majority of these self-righteous public officials as well as their public allies! When the victim sought assistance from the FBI and redress for violations of his civil rights, he discovers the 1964 Civil Rights Act is limited to matters of “sex, race and religion” only whereas he was simply involved in a bar room brawl … thus, no it’s not a federal matter! Only after several days did some members of Congress finally call for an investigation about the incident.
One wonders why we must continue to hold Congressional hearings and enact special legislation to ensure individuals can enjoy their fundamental rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as granted to them in the Constitution. Perhaps, it is also prudent to ask just whom our armed forces are supposed to be defending. In my naval oath, I swore to, “defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.“ It always thought I was serving all Americans, not just those with whom I happened to agree.
Gays and lesbians are not the first nor, sadly, will they be the last members of our American community to be labeled pariahs, demons or misfits and be denied full participation in our social fabric. Yet, as with blacks and women before them, they will eventually be entitled to the same individual rights and privileges as their fellow citizens.
Meantime, politicians could better serve the public by aggressively and visibly promoting of universal tolerance and understanding with the end of eradicating all forms of unreasoned bias rather than fanning the flames of irrational prejudice … and taking serious although perhaps extremely unpopular actions to addressing the issues of health care reform and reducing our staggering budget deficit, both of which truly threaten our way of life, instead of wasting time plotting ways to tag anti-gay amendments onto important although otherwise unrelated legislation.
