Robert commented on my gay marriage post, incidentally noting his post on DADT.
I agree. DADT is a horrible policy.
(1) A (straight, married) friend is an Air Force officer. He has done a bit of a historical review, and the same things people were saying about having mixed race units before integration, people are saying about having gays openly serving.
(2) If the military is having recruiting problems, why turn away or fire a population willing to serve?
(3) I have known one military psychiatrist. His job got messy sometimes with DADT, he would have to tell his patient [if it looked like the guy was getting ready to tell him something he didn't really want to hear] that if his patient came out to him, he would have to tell the guy's commanding officer, and if the guy wanted possibly to talk about those kinds of issues, he could make a referral to the civilian world.
So, yeah, I think there's a rights issue there.
On the other hand, what really pisses me off is people being thrown out of their families when they come out, or kids being sent to ex-gay camp. And there is no rights issue there (except maybe child abuse).
Posted by Owlish at June 30, 2005 08:04 AM