While President William Clinton brought the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy to the military while he was in office the real impact was that things didn't really change all that much. Now, another Clinton has already stated in her presidential run that she opposes the policy and will attempt to allow gays to serve openly and the debate has reopened. While no one person can speak to every base, station or ship, if my small part of the Navy from 1976 to 2006 can be used as an example, the policy had a net effect of zero.

How can this be? For the most part we were too busy getting the job done, going on liberty, working on off duty things like hobbies and education to go hunting homosexual sailors and harassing them or to get them tossed out of the Navy. While I'm sure there was some gay bashing in some places I really don't believe it was any worse than society at large. Were there gay jokes? Sure were, along with blonde jokes, air dale jokes, various ethnic and religious jokes and all sorts of jokes about how enlisted Sailors got one over on the officers.

Despite this, there was also a great tolerance for all the various religious and ethnic groups on the ships I was on throughout my career. Occasionally racism would raise its ugly head and it was dealt with, often severely.

People on both sides of the issue claim success or failure, that the policy went too far or not far enough and that the military is still processing homosexuals out of the service. It is worth noting that those homosexuals who do get processed out are those who felt compelled to tell their superiors that they were not practicing heterosexual sex in their quest for sexual fulfillment. One after another, these individuals decided to tell others about their sexual orientation, and I'm sure those superiors were not curious. As a former senior enlisted Sailor, I can state that I wasn't curious and I didn't really care as long as no one felt compelled to tell me and I didn't ask.

Are there gays and lesbians serving in the service? Yes. Just as there are straights serving in the service? There are also those who practice abstinence or are otherwise celibate besides our Catholic priests. The priest doesn't go around telling everyone that he is celibate. We know, or at least believe, that the priest is celibate because he wears the collar. Those who are straight don't introduce themselves as straight. So why must gays and lesbians insist on telling everyone they are gay

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