When people talk about openly gay people serving in the military having a negative effect on ‘good order’, I always tend to look back at Executive Order 9981 which, in 1948, forced the beginning of racial integration in the armed services. I think it’s clear from history that integration resulted in many instances of ‘poor order’, but no one suggests that it wasn’t worth it in the end. I don’t really agree that gays in the military cause much in the way of ‘poor order’, but my point is: so what if they do? It won’t last. In the fifties, the military blazed the trail of racial integration. Why would they now want to be last to get with the program on tolerance of gays?
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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The “poor order” comes from the immediate possibility that all of those alpha males might suddenly find themselves being looked at like a piece of meat just as they’ve looked at women all of their lives. That’s something they really understand and it scares the bejeezus out of them. It’s visceral as a result and the crowd in question hasn’t ever really been intellectual anyway.
Military culture isn’t exactly pliable – mental, physical, emotional and social regimentation is what makes them exceedingly good at what they do. The down side of this is that necessary change happens at a glacial pace within the military, and debatable change doesn’t happen at all without the full weight of the Commander in Chief behind the initiative.
The military will always be last to get with the program on (fill in the blank) simply because that’s how they roll – it’s their nature – much like those in the liberal arts will almost always be the first to get with the program on (fill in the blank), whatever the particular program may be.
It’s their nature.
I was in the army ’71-’73. It was at the end of the draft. The Vietnam War was winding down. I was in a Personnel Company stateside. There was a small group of gays in it. They were discreet, quiet. They hung out together. No one said anything. Everyone did their job.
Why were gays “tolerated” then? The army needed the bodies. If you get a healthy economy where the poor weren’t forced to serve in the army to survive, or if you have a major war where the military needs lots and lots of bodies, then the army will accept gays, the ones who don’t make noise. Or, the third option, is to have an honest and fair adjudication of the matter and recognize reality. I’m not holding my breath, though.