DADT: Worth it or a Joke?

This is something I never understood, why gay people cannot be open about who they are while serving in the military. Is it that the military is afraid that gay people are going to throw pillows or shoot sprinkles at the enemy? Do they think that they are going to replace their guns for water pistols? Give me a break. Everyone gets the same basic training, whether you are gay, straight or bisexual. Who you decide to lay with should not be an issue in the military or anywhere else for that matter.

For those who are not up to speed with current affairs, DADT (Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell) restricts the efforts of the United States Military for trying to discover who is gay(Don’t Ask), lesbian or bisexual but no one can serve openly as well (Don’t Tell). However, there is more to the Don’t Ask part of the law. If the military feels there should be an investigation, they can open one. Doesn’t seem fair now does it.

There are those who argue that this is to help gays in the military from being beaten by those who do not care for gay people. Thing is, everyone is supposed to be protected equally from being beaten, whether you are straight, gay, lesbian or bisexual. Aren’t things like that taught in basic training, to trust and respect your unit? So if this was true, then no one should be beating anyone up. Yes, I know it happens, there are those who are the weakest link of the unit and the rest of them are just trying to toughen that soldier up. Though those are things that should be stopped anyways since it isn’t the unit’s job to toughen one soldier up, it is the commanding officer’s job. Now, if he is the one beating on the soldier, then it should be questioned whether he is fighting for us or them. Picking on a fellow military soldier, no matter what your rank is, should be considered an act of treason.

I have a hypothetical scenario. Say the draft was still in effect, where the government could in fact make people enlist for war. Back in the old days, people would dodge the draft by going to Canada. Tons of people were able to do this. Today, what if people were to just say they were openly gay. Would they turn away tons of people? By law, they would have to as part of the Don’t Tell section.

Too bad the draft is illegal now and we will never see if this would happen or what the outcome truly would be. It would be interesting.

In closing, the Don’t Ask, Don’t tell policy, which was signed by President Bill Clinton, is something of the past and should be looked upon as something that was thought to be helpful but since gays, lesbians and bisexuals are saying thanks but no thanks, then it should be pushed away.

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