Admission of Gays to the Military: A Singularly Intolerant Act

Abstract

Abstract : The United States armed forces are in process of drawing down. There appears to be a national consensus in support of this drawdown, a broad realization that it is one of tough choices needing to be made if we are to get at our difficult domestic challenges. It appears likely, however, that American military and, indeed, all American citizens are on verge of embroilment in what may ultimately prove to be an even more difficult challenge than that of force reduction. It will question our nation's values, beliefs, and societal norms. It will challenge us as a people and define us as an organized society. In fact, it threatens to divide nation. This challenge is integration of avowed homosexuals into force. The broad domestic conflict of which homosexual issue is only a part is often described as a cultural war, and sometimes even a cultural civil war. It is being fought now, as it has been fought over past generation, on a number of fronts. James Carville, media consultant for President Clinton, said that 1992 election was about the economy, stupid! And indeed, according to a number of exit polls, economy may have been deciding factor. It would be a mistake, however, to conclude that economic issues are always paramount. In United States, politics often divides Americans along cultural lines too -- along lines of region, race, ethnicity, religion, and personal values. The military services, never immune to spillover effects of society's cultural divisions, may now confront intractable problem of homosexual integration. In present article, we shall argue against such a policy.