by Roisi Proven

Created on: May 09, 2010

If you are an openly homosexual or bisexual man or woman, you are barred from serving in the US military.

However, if you are a self-loathing, secretive person who has lied to your friends and family for years about something that is a huge part of you and your life, then you are welcome to serve.

With the pressure that is put on our armed forces to perform in combat situations, should it be encouraged to hide a huge part of yourself from men and women who you have entrusted your life to? Of course not. This law is not only discriminatory, it is completely nonsensical. The US military is not only denying the right of LGBT people to serve their country, they are also asking them to deny who they are. Would you ask someone to protect you if they cannot even be honest with you?

This law is also full of holes, and cannot be fully upheld in many situations, making it a dangerous rule. In April 2010, a female Air Force officer outed herself as a lesbian, and was unable to leave the military because her superior officers said that the rule could not be used to get a deliberate discharge. As many newspapers noted at the time "if you admit to being homosexual you can be discharged from the military, but if you admit it for the purposes of being discharged you won't be.". So the law can be used against you if people "find you out", but if you are open and honest knowing that you will lose your job, you will be kept in the military against your will with people who will most likely then harbor resentment towards you.

10 or 15 years ago, had you asked any general in the US military whether they though this law should be repealed, the answer would have been a resounding no. However, times have changed. Many senior officers are showing their support for the withdrawal of the rule. Gen. David Petraeus, The Commander of US Central Command, has said that he is not sure that members of the military even care about the sexuality of a fellow soldier, and that he had served with gay and lesbian people in the field in the past and their sexuality had fairly quickly become a non-issue.

The US as a country should have repealed this archaic, undemocratic law a long time ago, just like the military in countries like Australia, Great Britain and Iran. As the US Commanding General of Armed Forces in Iraq, Gen. Odierno, recently said in an interview, "everyone should be allowed to serve, as long as we're still able to fight our wars."

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