Bajoobahead #6: Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas apparently has a problem with gays serving in the military. Money quote:

The place to start is whether citizens of this country, through their elected representatives and the military leaders named by them, have a right to determine what type of service members best serve the interests, safety and security of the United States. I contend we do. The military should not be a test lab. Pressure is building to put female sailors on submarines, along with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, presumably. That many heterosexuals find homosexual behavior immoral and not conducive to unit cohesion is of no concern to the social wrecking crew.

Wow, how wrong is this? First of all, homosexuality does not hurt unit cohesion. A survey of military personnel, either currently active or recent veterans, shows that, of those who were certain they served with a gay or lesbian, 64% said it had no effect on unit morale. Of those who weren't, a plurality (49%) said it would have no impact on them personally. 73% said they were comfortable around gays and lesbians.

Even if a minority of heterosexual soldiers disapprove of gays serving, that doesn't mean that they could not do their jobs professionally serving with gays. That's also not a good reason to prevent homosexuals from serving openly. I'm sure several white soldiers would have disapproved of serving with blacks in 1948. I'm sure several compared Executive Order 9981 to treating the military as a "test lab," as it came six years before Brown v. Board and a full fifteen years before "I have a dream." I'm sure people argued that it would effect "our ability to fight and defend the country," but it didn't seem to impinge on our ability to drive the communists out of South Korea two years later.

Thomas does have one good point: We should be able to decide which people are best fit to serve in the military. But homosexuality should not be such a disqualification. Especially when 58 Arabic linguists, along with 11,000 other service members, have been discharged since Don't Ask Don't Tell came into effect. Especially when some estimate that DADT's repeal could spur up to 41,000 to enlist.

Don't Ask Don't Tell is not only morally wrong, it's a strategic blunder. And an op-ed that relies on hypotheticals that fly in the face of facts and history should not prevent us from repealing it.