Honestly America, why is this still an issue? Gays have always been in the military.

Our nation's armed forces inherently encompass the diversity of our society. As with any large social group, the armed forces will also always include a wide assortment of bigots, know-it-alls, people with exceptionally poor personal hygiene and total flaming idiotsall of whom could be a distraction at any given time and none of whom would be your first choice for a bunk mate. You may distain homosexuality, but you can't filter it out any more effectively than you can skirt around a million other potentially disagreeable personality traits.

Furthermore, military culture already breeds a certain type of uniformity which leaves little room for the screaming-queen behavior that the conservative fundamentalists seem to envision. While any human activity will inevitably have a sexual undertone, people who join the military usually do so for banal reasons to uphold democratic principles, to protect our nation, or to test themselves personally and develop a career.

The "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" policy only serves to illustrate the juvenile mindset of our government. How is it that we decided to mandate deceitfulness to the very group of citizens who we entrust with our extensive weaponry systems and deepest classified secrets? Is it really a good idea for a high-ranking officer to be worried about whether someone might come across information that would reveal their homosexual preferences? Sexual blackmail is one of the mainstays of espionage, and no American should have to worry that their career will end based solely on the fact that they are gay.

Our current global climate dictates the need for a strong, invigorated military. We need to be engaged in a public debate about the more pertinent issues that effect almost all of our enlisted troops: the quality of our military training, the combat readiness of our military fleet, the state of our Veteran's Administration and the care and support of wounded soldiers when they return from the front. Hand-wringing about sexual peccadilloes seems like a petty past-time in the face of the greater administrative and moral issues our military faces today.

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