Don’t Ask Don’t Tell has been repealed.
Gays can now serve openly in the military. There are some unintended consequences of this policy.
Before DADT was repealed, gays committed ten times more sexual assaults than straight service members. The Obama administration then made it far more difficult for gays to be charged with sexual assault by requiring any gay accused of any crime or infraction in the military to be represented by a staff level (Major and above) officer. This legal requirement is still in place. Gays can not only behave freely, but they also have far more leeway to do so than even in mainstream society.
It’s logical to assume that gays now commit more that ten times the number of sexual assaults as straight service members.
The status quo on homosexuality is that it is a lifestyle preference. There are many to the far right and the far left of this position, but generally folks are most comfortable with homosexuality as a lifestyle preference.
In this context Christianity is also a lifestyle preference. Those service members who practice a more fundamental form of Christianity that opposes homosexuality have an equal right to their beliefs as gays.
Legally, morally and ethically there can be no preference to either position such as the repeal of DADT has created and the associated legal super status given by Executive Order to military gays’ legal rights.
There is, and always has been, a strong religious component to those who serve in the military. Traditionally soldiers are more conservative in their politics and more serious in their religion than mainstream America. If anything, the legal preference is due to Christian service members if anyone.
What about the religious service members with a moral objection to homosexuality? Consider the Marine Corps boot camp (and enlisted barracks up to the NCO level), where every Marine is billeted in a two man room. Gays have their rights to live in such an arrangement. What about Christians? They should have a right to object and to live with a straight service member.
The whole basis of military service is that “everybody is green.” There are no blacks, no hispanics or asians or whites. Everybody is green. Military order in the face of danger requires it to be so. The new paradigm is that “everybody is green or pink.”
The only possible consequence is a deterioration of military preparedness.
Have a Merry Christmas.
