Don't Study, Don't Wait

It would be nice to believe that Harry Truman effected integration of the armed forces with a single executive order issued in 1948. In fact it was three years before the Army reported the complete integration of basic training and five years before it could report that it had integrated 95 percent of its ground forces. But integration happened in a methodical way, in the middle of a war, and eventually it was completed. Not a bad piece of work considering that the rest of the nation, particularly that part of the country where most military bases were located, practiced a rigid form of apartheid. That is, of course, the point. In 1948, African American soldiers were fully segregated from the white military community. The outside culture preached racial inequality and the segregated nature of apartheid was fully accepted in most American communities, north and south. (Truman's 1948 order responded, in part, to the brutal lynching of two WWII veterans and their wives by a Georgia mob.) Integration was a very tall order, particularly in the middle of a war, and it got done. In 2010, when considering the integration of the Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered community into normal military life, we start from the fact that the community is already integrated. There are an estimated 13,500 GLBT soldiers, sailors, marines and airpersons in uniform now. They went through basic and advanced training at great expense to the Defense Department all while living side by side with straight counterparts. They now live together daily. Gay sailors shower with straight sailors, lesbian Army nurses shower with straight Army nurses. It is sheer bullshit to argue that the integration will be difficult and complicated. The great unfairness about DADT is not that it prohibits integration or even opportunity. THe unfairness is it leaves every GLBT service person wondering when he or she will be called out and expelled for being who he or she is. Moreover, the greater community can't seem to understand what is wrong with eliminating DADT. Even conservatives are not opposed as a matter of doctrine. It was Barry Goldwater who said he was more interested in whether a soldier could shoot straight than if he was straight. Of course the GOOP will do what it can to make a political issue out of it. John McCaine is insulted that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has thought for himself and supports eliminating DADT even though he did not consult with the Great Senator. Sen. Sexy Champlaiin of Georgia says the military will not be able to regulate tattoos if gays are let out of the military closet. Sen. Jeff (Henry Gibson) Sessions says it's better to leave well enough alone. Adm. Mike Mullen had the right answer for all that. "It's about leadership," he said. So, let's get on leading now. We do not need to wait a year for another study. Let us allow these good citizens to get on with the business of defending us without further harassment.