An intolerant minority

Israel, which unarguably has one of the world’s most elite and effective military operations, officially bans discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders. Israel “has more gay rights than all of the US,” says Denny Meyer, a former Vietnam era Army sergeant first class who is also editor of the Gay Military Times.

Almost 30 nations - including most countries of the European Union - have no problems with anyone’s sexual orientation. England, whose soldiers serve with Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq, is even “actively recruiting” gays and lesbians, says Meyer.

All British Empire nations, including Canada, Australia, Ireland, Scotland, and New Zealand, allow gays to serve in their military. Of the 26 NATO nations, only the United States, Portugal, and Turkey don’t allow gays to openly serve in the military. And Turkey, says Meyer, “is close to allowing gays to serve”.

Almost 75 per cent of all military personnel say they are “comfortable” with having gays and lesbians in their units, according to a Zogby poll in December. About 25 per cent of all military persons say they know that a member of their unit is gay - and it has no effect upon them.

Former Senator Chuck Robb, who served 34 years in active and reserve duty as a Marine officer, in 2002 said that “the threat to morale,” which some believe will occur if there is a policy to permit gays in the military, “comes not from the orientation of a few, but from the closed minds of many”.

About 79 per cent of all Americans believe the military should allow gays to serve openly, according to a Boston Globe poll conducted in May 2005. A FOX News poll two years earlier revealed that 64 per cent of all Americans had no problem with allowing gays to serve openly. About two-thirds of all Catholics and slightly more than half of all Protestants believe in the rights of gays to serve, according to a Pew Research Center study of March 2006.

Rep. Martin Meehan (D-Mass.), with 114 co-sponsors, including conservative Republicans, on February 28 introduced the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (H.R. 1246) that would end “don’t ssk, don’t tell,” and replace it with absolute nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

With most of the world’s best military units not worried about the presence of gays in their ranks, with large majorities of both military and civilian personnel believing gays should be allowed to serve openly, and with a Democratic Congress that claims it plans to make necessary social changes, now is the time strike down the hostility of an intolerant minority and to eliminate one more form of officially-sanctioned discrimination.