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Repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Leaves a Lot to be Desired

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit in on a brief given by a Marine Corps unit in California regarding the repeal of the infamous Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) policy implemented under the Clinton administration.

The bottom line was both simple and admirable: this is a non-negoitable issue.  Your respect towards your fellow Marines is not a value-based order, and if you find yourself working with someone who is openly gay, you will be civil.  Under federal law and under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, you will be actionably guilty if you harass or refuse to work with a gay service member.

So far, so good.  Given the conservative, borderline dogmatic stances endorsed by the US military, a direct order to be respectful to gay men and women is actually progress.

Then it got ugly.

A Proposal for Women’s Aid in Veterans’ Affairs.

When I informed my family of my decision to enlist, the general reaction was the type of shock more commonly associated blunt head trauma.  My father pointed out the closest interest I had shown to anything martial was my brief albeit impassioned performance of Tybault in my junior high’s production of Romeo and Juliet.  When we went on our annual summer rambles cross-country, I was dragged to every battle ship, plane, helicopter, and tank to survive WWII; while my four brothers enthusiastically clamored about the bulwarks, I would find a bench and read Grimm’s Fairy Tales.  Nevertheless, for my own and very convoluted reasons, I did enlist in the United States Marine Corps after high school; and, until I was ...

When I informed my family of my decision to enlist, the general reaction was the type of shock more commonly associated blunt head trauma.  My father pointed out the closest interest I had shown to anything martial ...